Analysis Of Descartes 'Mediations On First Philosophy'

First, I will discuss the views of Descartes’ philosophy about knowledge. In his writing, Mediations on First Philosophy, Descartes claims that knowledge originates from reasoning, thinking. He begins the argument by expressing that even though the knowledge he has obtained was through the use of his senses, he is unable to have faith in them because they are deceivable. “Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses. But occasionally I have found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once” (Descartes 1). As a result, Descartes developed a strategy called the method of doubt, where he investigates the true meaning of truth and knowledge by doubting
“I will eliminate from those beliefs anything that could be slightly called into question by the arguments I have been using, which will leave me with only beliefs about myself that are certain and unshakeable” (Descartes 4). This statement represents the method of Descartes’ questioning if anything is real, and even if he himself exists. As Descartes assesses himself, he is not able to define who he is. He concludes that since he is deceived, he has to find something that is certain to him. He then figures out that if he is capable of getting tricked, then he exists. “So after thoroughly thinking the matter through I conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, must be true whenever I assert it or think it” (Descartes 4). So overall, thinking was how we arrive at the term knowledge. However, Descartes makes an argument that some parts of knowledge and ideas are already incorporated in us at birth. Descartes’ philosophy centered on innate ideas was his way of showing that there is a God. He displays this by claiming that everything around us, and even himself has an end at some point, in which he is not able to create or acknowledge the presence of an entity being