philosophies of René Descartes and John Locke. Descartes was a rationalist who believed in innate ideas‚ solid reasoning‚ and the ability of deduction. In contrast‚ Locke was an empiricist that believed in sensory perception‚ induction‚ and attaining knowledge through experience which he argued was our only source of ideas. This brings us to the prompt; describe the difference between Descartes’ and Locke’s theories of how we acquire knowledge of the external world. According to Descartes’ First Meditation
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Methods and Meditations on First Philosophy is a discourse by Rene Descartes‚ which largely focuses on the nature of humanity and divinity. This essay is a discussion of this discourse‚ and will summarize‚ explain and object to various parts of his work. The majority of this essay focuses on Descartes Sixth Meditation‚ which includes his argument that corporeal things do exist. 1. There clearly exists a passive faculty of sensing and I use it involuntarily. 2. If there exists a passive faculty
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In meditations by Rene Descartes‚ he said he has decided to doubt everything he previously believed to be true and instead rely on only his reasoning ability starting from the scratch and building his knowledge beginning with things of which he is completely certain. He rejects the knowledge from his sense deciding that such knowledge is unreliable and open to deception so is not trustworthy. He reasons that he himself must actually exist because he is able to doubt and to think. He knows that he
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Philosophy" Descartes tries to prove the existence of God in the third meditation. He does this by coming up with several premises that eventually add up to a solid argument. First‚ I will explain why Descartes ask the question‚ does god exist? And why does Descartes think he needs such and argument at this point in the text. Secondly‚ I will explain‚ in detail‚ the arguments that Descartes makes and how he comes to the conclusion that God does exist. Next‚ I will debate some of Descartes premises
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Sarah Gabr 900-08-9073 Final Essay In the First Meditation‚ Descartes presents his philosophical project‚ and he claims that‚ in order to complete this project‚ he needs to put into questions the truth of all his beliefs. Descartes shows that we can doubt of the truth of all our beliefs by two main arguments‚ the Dream Argument and the Evil Genius argument. In the Dream Argument‚ Descartes discusses the senses and how it can deceive. Descartes then mentions that when he is dreaming he can also sense
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Ben Stone Philosophy Final 12/14/15 1. Descartes’ Method of Doubt basically means to doubt absolutely everything that one could not be absolutely certain of. He has this method because you have all these thoughts in your head that you doubt and are not completely certain about and since you doubt all these things you also doubt your existence but since you doubt your existence‚ this means you have consciousness and actually do exist. Your beliefs are all connected in a foundation of knowledge and
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In this paper‚ I will argue Descartes’ argument‚ that it is possible to gain knowledge‚ is flawed and incorrect. First‚ I will set out Descartes’ premise for believing knowledge is possible. Next‚ I will reintroduce his ideas in order to point out flaws and show the weakness of his position. Then‚ I will provide a counter to my assertions. Finally‚ I will give my reasons for supporting the notion that it is not possible to gain knowledge. Descartes’ Argument Descartes’ argument for knowledge is based
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Descartes has two arguments for skepticism‚ the first the dream argument and then second the evil demon argument. Both examples are used to raise doubts in things that we may commonly believe to be true. It seems right to believe that if you know something then you cannot doubt that thing‚ but Descartes wants to be certain in every way that he does in fact know that thing. These two examples are used to bring skepticism into your knowledge of things. For example‚ I know that I am taking a test‚ but
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Philosophy and Literature 253 Midterm Exam October 7 2012 “Oh‚ Jupiter‚ a robot Descartes!” Asimov’s short story “Reasons” in I‚ Robot is the fictional account of a robots creation of his own path of reasoning. Much like Descartes‚ the Robot‚ Cutie‚ is curious about the truth of his existence and plans to find the answers out for himself. Cutie is a self-aware‚ reasoning robot on a station in space in the year 2015‚ and all he knows are the things in his immediate surrounding‚ which isn’t much
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Descartes method of doubt is his personal quest for certainty in knowledge‚ a system that allows us to find a way to be assured that what we feel we “know” is not just a figment of his imagination but an infallible truth. The motivation for his method of doubts begins as a question of the possibility that all his thoughts could be false on the basis that he has had many false beliefs before and could possibly have formed more false beliefs with a fabricated base‚ and that in order to have stable
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