Examples Of Rene Descartes Claim Of Absolute Certainty
Student: Vladyslav Nozdrachov Student number: 14504637
Methodic doubt is a way of searching for the absolute truth by systematically doubting everything. A way to do this is by categorizing ideas and if any part of an idea or argument may be doubted, then the idea is narrowed down to the point where the problem may lie, if it cannot be proven to be certain then the entire idea or argument in that category is eradicated. The point of this, is to break down all knowledge to their core foundations and by doing this ultimately finding an absolute certainty.
Rene Descartes used methodic doubt to attain an absolute certainty and came to a conclusion
“Cogito, ergo sum” meaning ‘I think, therefore I am”. To achieve this he thought up the deceiving demon, …show more content…
This leads into his mind and body dualism idea where he states that he is able to imagine himself without a body but not his body without a mind, thus continuing into his conceivability argument. The conceivability argument is where you can imagine or conceive something for example a person wearing a pair of shoes, it is also possible to conceive somebody not wearing shoes. In this case if I can include an idea where that person or idea may not need that feature in this example the shoes then that person or idea does not need that feature. And since Descartes doesn’t need to include his body in the idea of himself, therefore he doesn’t need his body, but cannot imagine himself without his mind therefore splitting the two. Descartes states that he is a thinking non-physical thing which is completely different to the body which is a non-thinking physical thing as his mind is a collection of ideas and does not exist as an extension as opposed to his body. The ability to conceive a body without a mind is not an impossible feat and the use of methodic doubt in this case is irrational in a
Methodic doubt is a way of searching for the absolute truth by systematically doubting everything. A way to do this is by categorizing ideas and if any part of an idea or argument may be doubted, then the idea is narrowed down to the point where the problem may lie, if it cannot be proven to be certain then the entire idea or argument in that category is eradicated. The point of this, is to break down all knowledge to their core foundations and by doing this ultimately finding an absolute certainty.
Rene Descartes used methodic doubt to attain an absolute certainty and came to a conclusion
“Cogito, ergo sum” meaning ‘I think, therefore I am”. To achieve this he thought up the deceiving demon, …show more content…
This leads into his mind and body dualism idea where he states that he is able to imagine himself without a body but not his body without a mind, thus continuing into his conceivability argument. The conceivability argument is where you can imagine or conceive something for example a person wearing a pair of shoes, it is also possible to conceive somebody not wearing shoes. In this case if I can include an idea where that person or idea may not need that feature in this example the shoes then that person or idea does not need that feature. And since Descartes doesn’t need to include his body in the idea of himself, therefore he doesn’t need his body, but cannot imagine himself without his mind therefore splitting the two. Descartes states that he is a thinking non-physical thing which is completely different to the body which is a non-thinking physical thing as his mind is a collection of ideas and does not exist as an extension as opposed to his body. The ability to conceive a body without a mind is not an impossible feat and the use of methodic doubt in this case is irrational in a