Rene Descartes

Background Information:

Rene Descartes was a 17th century French philosopher (1596 to1650)
Is regarded as the Father of Modern Philosophy
Metaphysics, Epistemology were areas of interest
Descartes was a renowned mathematician inventing things such as the Cartesian coordinate system
Descartes attempted to separate the world into the halves of certain truth and untruths
He used Methodological scepticism where by he discarded everything he thought he knew and decided to rebuild the frameworks
He discovered that you couldn’t prove anything through the senses
Everything that you know is composed of different beliefs
He reached the conclusion that he existed because for him to be asking questions about existence then there must be something to actually ask the question rendering him to reach the conclusion “I think therefore I am” (Cogito Ergo Sum)
Descartes also found that the existence of axioms in geometry because they are inexplicitly true by definition and nothing else can dispute them.
Cartesian dualism: Regular matter and Non-physical mind.
Soul is supposedly within the pineal gland
Mind and soul are different things
Essential nature of conscious intelligence resides in something non-physical
Each mind is a distinct non-physical thing, an individual package of non-physical substance
Reality divides into two basic kinds of substance, ordinary matter and conscious reason
Reason must surely be beyond physical systems

Key Ideas:

Dualism:

Essential nature of conscious intelligence resides in something non-physical

Each mind is a distinct non-physical thing, an individual package of non-physical substance
Reality divides into two basic kinds of substance, ordinary matter and conscious reason
Reason must surely be beyond physical systems

Objections to Dualism:

The Brain is the mediator between the body and the mind

All mental phenomena has neural dependence
We are creatures of matter and must learn to accept that fact
“Do not multiply entities beyond what is strictly necessary to explain the phenomena”

Standard Form Arguments

Sense Perception Argument-Dream v Reality

Senses can deceive

‘It is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.’

Therefore, we should not trust our senses completely

Our sense perceptions we experience when we are asleep are similar to sense perceptions we experience whilst awake.

We should not trust our senses completely (see above conclusion)

There is no definite way of distinguishing between a dream and reality

Therefore, it is possible that I may be asleep.

Deceiver Argument

Some things that I had accepted as true in my childhood have been revealed to me to be false

It is possible that everything I believe to be true is actually false

Therefore, it is possible that I am being deceived

Therefore, to prevent myself from being deceived, I shall suppose that the only truth is that nothing else is true

Existence Argument

I shall suppose that the only truth is that nothing else is true; I shall suppose that I have no ‘senses, body, shape, extension and movement.’

I am aware of my own, individual thought

I have convinced myself that I have no senses or body (P1)-how could I be aware of my thought without my sense perception?

If I ‘convince myself of something,’ then I must be ‘at least something.’

Therefore, I must exist.

Key Quotes:

“I am, then, in the strict sense only a thing that thinks”
“If I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed”
“There are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep”
“Even though the wax has changed in “colour, shape and size” “The wax remains”
“A body which presented itself to me in these various forms a little while ago, but now exhibits different ones”
“Some years ago I was struck by the large number of false hoods that I had accepted as true”
“It is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.”
If I “convince myself of something,” then I must be “at least something.”
“I myself may be the author of these thoughts”
“As I see it the real you is not the material body, but rather a non-spatial thinking substance. An individual unit of mind-stuff quite distinct from your material body.”
“Anything which admits of the slightest doubt I shall set aside just as if I had found it to be wholly false; and I will proceed in this way until I recognise something certain”
“I will believe that my memory tells me lies, and that none of the things that it reports ever happened. I have no senses. Body, shape, extension, movement and place”
“There are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep”
“If I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed”
“I exist-that is certain”
“It could be that were I totally to cease from thinking, I should totally cease to exist”
“I am, then, in the strict sense only a thing that thinks”
“Hearing has now altered-yet the wax remains”
“It is simply not possible that I who am now thinking am not something”
“These hands or this whole body are mine”
“Everything I see is spurious”
“I will believe that my memory tells me lies”
“I have no senses, body, extension, shape or movement”
“So what remains true? Perhaps just the one fact that nothing is certain”
“I am a thinking thing”

	Created by Winbaj08 about 11 years ago

VCE Philosophy (The nature of mind and body: Descartes, Armstrong) Note on Descartes, created by Winbaj08 on 22/09/2013.