Essay 3: Descartes on the Method of Doubt In the Meditations on First Philosophy‚ we find Descartes at a point trying to suspend all beliefs that he held from his youth by destroying his unstable house of knowledge to build a more concrete foundation of certainty. In an attempt to rid himself of skepticism of his own beliefs‚ Descartes devises the method of doubt to eliminate all his current beliefs that could not possibly be true‚ leaving him only with the things in which he could be certain
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While both Galileo and Descartes advocate a more mathematical natural philosophy‚ what they advocate greatly differ from one another. Overall‚ Galileo tries to relate objects in terms of proportions and uses more Archimedean principles like Archimedes’ work on floating bodies and his simple machines. Because of this‚ Galileo’s natural philosophy is mechanical. It is clear that Galileo strives to make natural philosophy a discipline of mathematics. He tries to make mathematics a more respectable science
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Descartes was the first mathematician to use the notation where the letters at the beginning of the alphabet represent data and the letters at the end of the alphabet to represent variables or unknowns. Descartes’ understanding of algebra was deep. He stated that the number of distinct roots of an equation is equal to the degree of the equation. Descartes was willing to consider negative (he called them false roots) and imaginary roots. He developed a rule for determining the number of positive
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no way aims to prove that God exists. Unlike Descartes‚ who tries to prove God’s existence through the idea of God himself Pascal does not think such a proof can succeed. Pascal does a good job in his argument because he takes both sides into account and comes to a reasonable conclusion using mathematics. Overall‚ Pascal’s wager is preferable to Descartes’ meditations because they contain many errors and do not appeal to people outside of Descartes’ own mind or beliefs. Pascal focuses on the question:
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Michael Nguyen Paper 2 3/29/2012 Professor Nathan Smith Rationalism vs Empiricism Rationalism believes that some ideas or concept are independent of experience and that some truth is known by reason alone. Rationalist support the idea of priori knowledge which means knowledge that comes before experience and independent of experience Philosophers that support that are associated with rationalism are Descartes‚ Kant‚ and Leibniz. Empiricism believes that some ideas or concepts are independent
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Moral Behavior: Aquinas and Aristotle vs. Kant When comparing between the philosophies of St. Thomas Aquinas/Aristotle and those of Immanuel Kant when regarding moral behavior‚ there are some very fundamental differences. On one hand‚ you have Kant’s autonomous perspective on behavior morality‚ in which you give the law to yourself. On the other hand‚ you have the heteronomy views of Aristotle and Aquinas which concludes that one can measure their conduct against an external force. Kant’s
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beings Kant believes we have a categorical duty of self-preservation to not wilfully take our own lives. Kant talks in depth about duty and believes we should act out of respect for the moral law. The will is the only inherent good‚ as we are only motivated by duty and nothing else. We should act only out of demands of the law‚ not from inclination‚ desires or to achieve a particular goal. Duty dictates we should never act or will something if we do not want it to become a universal law. Kant was against
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Rene Descartes: Father of Modern Philosophy Rene Descartes has been called the father of modern philosophy and is considered by many to be one of the most influential philosophers. Descartes refused to accept the views of those who came before him and in order to rid of all past opinions‚ he began doubting everything‚ especially material things. This way of questioning and skepticism enabled Descartes to make breakthroughs in philosophy. Rene Descartes tried to prove that there is something
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6/25/2014 Philosophy 201 Reaction to Kant Kant Kant first draws close to differentiating between a moral choice and a prudent choice. A prudent choice is a choice used in good judgment and is rational. Kant has no interest in morality being rational. A law is a law and thou shall obey it. The moral law is absolute. Thou shall not lie‚ means exactly what it says‚ thou shall not lie. No ifs‚ ands or buts about it. There is no reason why a person should lie because it is our duty as moral
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1/17/13 Philosophy Kant & Foucault Both Kant and Foucault present a question of what is enlightenment? According to Immanuel Kant enlightenment was man’s freedom from his “self-incurred immaturity”. Kant believes that all that is needed to reach enlightenment is freedom. Enlightenment could not be achieved by any one person‚ we have to do so as a community. Kant said that we should have the freedom to make public use of our reason in all situations. He also believed that revolution is a
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