Monday, February 4, 2008
Discourse Part 4 par 1
In the first paragraph in part four, Descartes tries to explain the "foundations" he's laid down. He feels he has to be in search for the truth. instead of finding the truth, he desides to look for the thing that are absolutly false. Descartes says that because our sences decieve us sometimes, nothing was exactly what it seemed, so he was questioning anything and everything. Because people make mistakes all the time, in even the simplest things, he was just as prone to err as any one else. He believes that because when we are sleeping it seems very real, who's to say that the world we're living in now isn't just a dream world. So he thought that the things that entered his mind were no more true than the illusions in his dreams. But then he realized something. He who was thinking had to be something. So he came up with his famous quote, " i think therefor i am". This such discovery was a solid as anything can get.
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3 comments:
"I think, therefore I am", the classic quote by Descartes. I agree with you that there is no argument in this saying. It makes complete sense. Actually, in this paragraph I agree with Descartes hands down. The only line that gets me confused is "...judging that I was just as prone to err as any other, I rejected as false all the reasonings that I had previously taken for demonstrations." However, even if you reject all the reasonings before you, how do you know there is not some truth in them. Also the reasonings that he has already learned obviously affected his thinking in the discourse. The whole idea that God exists was an idea that dominated the society he lived in. Think back to that time period, how could you not believe in God? I think he is trying to prove the existence of an entity one cannot prove and his prior ideas of God have influenced his thinking. Thus, his mind is so set in believing in God, he is blind to the fact that God might not exist.
i understand what your saying... that time period god was a big part of life. even though he couldn't be proven, they still believed. and not he's denying every thing he thoguht before. it's kind of a contradiction, it seems like he's trying to do too many things at once
Yeah, they believed because of faith. You can believe something because of faith. However, you cannot prove something that is faith. It is just something you intuitively believe. Thus, you cannot prove God's existence with mathematical concepts.
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