Sunday, February 10, 2008
meti. part 5 para.12 Perception
In paragraph 12 Decarte talks about perception and the way people see the things that he sees. He has an idea that what he understands and perceives clearly are the only things that he really believes. He compared his idea to math once again and how that is easily understood. He also goes on to say how he believes in God so much that he would never say he didn't believe in him. I find this to be a little contradicting since really there is no way for someone to explain all of the things God has done or said to have done. I mean i believe in God and all but its because I just have faith and even somethings i still have a hard time believing some of the things that have been said. Its really hard not to question something that has no real answer.
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Kate makes a good point. All throughout this chapter Descartes gives explanations on things such as the light, the earth, the heat, etc. and why they have truth behind them. Descartes even thoroughly explains the fact that he exists and the reasons why he is capable of thinking because he does exist. When it comes to speaking on God there is more persuasion put forth instead of actuals facts. Do you know why? Kate said it best. Aside from lack of proof faith is the only way someone could believe in this spiritual being. There is no hardcore evidence therefore I see what Kate is getting at when she says Descartes contradicts his statements.
When i read these things that Descartes wrote about (light, the earth heat.) I was thinking more that he was more just making a reason that God made them less then trying to prove that God created everything.
yeah...I definately agree with what you both are saying. You can believe in God because of faith, but you cannot prove God's existence. Unless God represents something else, I think Descartes gave in to his own bias (that God exists). Thus, if this is true than all his writing in the discourse and Meditations is not based on reason. And thus, there is a major contradiction here. So maybe "God" does represent something else. Still not sure about it :).
Sorry. I forgot to mention this, but it ties in with what lindsay said in her last comment. "God, who is all-perfect and all-truthful.." This is a line from part 4 in the discourse, but from this text it could be inferred that Descartes does have a bias nature towards God. Unfortunately, it forces me to lose a little credibility for Descartes and his "philosophy." He still has a long way to go to persuade me in the direction he is envisioning.
Descartes goes into much detail when he talks about mathematics and how once he relates a situation to mathematics, to him, it is easily understood, and Kate i absolutely agree with you when you say 'its really hard not to question something that has no real answer' and its true that Faith is really all we have in this life (referring to God and heaven, etc) its all in our minds, no one can say they are completely positive of all God has created and done in his life, unless we refer to the Bible of course, but even with that, people have doubts and its only natural, considering we only have our faith to back us up. (although i do believe faith is enough, its different for everyone i am sure) :)
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