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Descartes -- Meditations One

Descartes -- Meditations One. Charles Manekin. Topics of Discussion. Intellectual Background of 17 th Cent. Philosophy Descartes’ Life and Works The Meditations, Objections and Responses Synopsis of Meditation One Main Arguments. Revolt Against Aristotelian Explanation.

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Descartes -- Meditations One

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  1. Descartes -- Meditations One Charles Manekin Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  2. Topics of Discussion • Intellectual Background of 17th Cent. Philosophy • Descartes’ Life and Works • The Meditations, Objections and Responses • Synopsis of Meditation One • Main Arguments Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  3. Revolt Against Aristotelian Explanation • Aristotelian Science: The explanation why a thing is what it is and why it cannot be otherwise • Aristotle’s doctrine of the four causes and the importance of teleology (study of final causes.) • Teleology dovetails nicely with providential deity Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  4. Revolt Against Aristotelian Explanation • Revolt is already in Kepler: mathematicization of the structure of the universe. God creates the universe in accordance with perfect mathematical structures. • Galileo (1564-1642) takes mathematical explanation to extremes; favors geometric over logical (syllogistic) demonstration; analyzes how something moves, not why it moves. • The beginning of mechanistic – efficient -- explanation Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  5. Descartes’ Early Life • Born 1596 in La Haye, France, to well-do family • At 10, enrolls in Jesuit College of La Fleche • Years later, he criticizes what he learned, especially scholasticism (medieval Aristotelianism) • Favorite topic: mathematics, but did not understand its potential • Philosophy: full of doubts Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  6. Mature Years • Spends most of his adult years in Holland 1628 Rules for the Direction of our Native Intelligence • Begins physical treatise The World in 1629; after condemnation of Galileo, abandons publication in 1633 • 1637 – Discourse on the Method, with Dioptrics, Meteorology and Geometry. Written in French Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  7. Meditations Concerning First Philosophy • “First Philosophy” means Metaphysics, which deals first and foremost with the existence of God and the immortality of the soul • Published in 1641, with the first six sets of Objections and Replies • Caterus, Mersenne (group of theologians), Hobbes, Anauld, Gassendi, More theologians • 1642 – Second edition with Bourdin’s Objections Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  8. Descartes’ later years • 1643 – Condemnation of Descartes’ Philosophy at Utrecht. • 1644 – Principles of Philosophy published – synthetic, i.e., geometric method. The Meditations followed the analytical method. Synthesis is good for easily comprehended concepts, lines, planes, etc. Not so analysis Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  9. The Goal and the Method • The Goal – to set philosophy, and knowledge in general on a sure footing. • Cartesian Foundationalism. • The quest for certainty, in D’s case, indubitability. • The Method – Universal Doubt. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  10. The Three Stages of Doubt • Preliminary Point: Distinction between doubting the existence of X and the truth of p. D is concerned with both. • Doubt in reliability of senses. • Doubt in the external world. • Doubt in laws of mathematics, logic, etc. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  11. Doubt Concerning Sense Knowledge • Start with common sense notion that seeing is believing. What I know is through my senses. • The senses sometimes deceive/argument from illusion • Therefore, they are not reliable to determine for us what exists. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  12. Doubt Concerning Sense Knowledge • Start with common sense notion that seeing is believing. What I know is through my senses. • The senses sometimes deceive/argument from illusion • Therefore, they are not reliable to determine for us what exists. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  13. Doubt Concerning the External World • Even though the senses deceive, they at least provide evidence for their being some external world. • The dream argument • Therefore, they are not reliable to determine for us that anything exists…since we may be dreaming Modern Philosophy PHIL320

  14. Doubt Concerning the Structure of Reality • Even if we are dreaming, there is some coherence to our dream. Even if material objects do not exist but are in the mind, at least they conform to the laws of mathematics. In my dreams, 2+1=3. • The Deceiving God or Malicious Demon argument. Modern Philosophy PHIL320

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