descartes

Question 1

Descartes meditations

Answer 1

1. he doubts everything because he has been deceived before
2. he still doubts everything but determines that he is a thinking thing and that he exists
   He knows his thoughts better than he can know material things
   3.he makes the argument that god exists through the theory that only things that have greater essence are able to create things with smaller essence. God has the greatest essence of them all so that means he created everything humans.
3. he provided another argument for god and —?
   The use of will
   Must use intellect (clear and distinct ideas) to be certain
4. • the reason for errors and doubting

6.he proves the existence of material objects and has the first principles of philosophy
Imagination vs understanding
Imagination cannot provide us w certainty
The senses
Proving mind and body are distinct
Argument from conceivability-
I exist as a thinking thing, my mind is distinct from my body
Argument from divisibility
Mind: essence- thought, immaterial, indivisible, not always affected by body
Body: essence- extension, material, divisible, always moved by bodies

Question 2

Method of doubt

Answer 2

since descartes was deceived once before, he can doubt everything as a way of searching for certainty.
By doubting everything, he is ridding himself of any previous knowledge that could influence his current view on the world.
he is starting from the ground up and rebuilding all of his knowledge.

Question 3

“I think; therefore, I am”

Answer 3

Descartes says that since we are a thinking thing, then we exist.
Even if we are a brain in a vat or there is an evil demon, we are still a thinking thing.
Not to think we are not a thinking thing is a contradiction in itself, because by thinking that you are not thinking you are thinking w

Question 4

Rationalism

Answer 4

Reason is the source of knowledge
Intuition
Mind has innate concepts
Logic and reason are primary
Deduction (general to particular)
Mathematics are the paradigm of knowledge
Genuine knowledge is certain
Experience/experiment cannot produce certainty

Question 5

Certainty

Answer 5

Having without a doubt certainty over a topic and idea. Cannot even have a “what if” or sliver of doubt to be certain.

Question 6

First philosophy/fundamental principle/self-grounding

Answer 6

Basically having an idea revolves around itself. The idea of self for descartes is self grounding for example. laying the philosophical foundations

Question 7

Sense perceptions

Answer 7

Sense perceptions can be deceitful and should not be a reliable way of discovering knowledge for rationalists

Question 8

Clear and distinct ideas

Answer 8

Clear and disctinct ideas are ideas that are so self-evidently true that they cannot be doubted

Question 9

The dream argument

Answer 9

The dream argument is proposed by Descartes, stating that we cannot be certain of anything because we can always be dreaming. There is always a chance that we are dreaming. There are dreams that seem so real we think its real life. Since this has happened even one time, there is always a chance that it can happen again.

Question 10

The evil demon argument

Answer 10

Descartes proposes that a reason to doubt everything is that an evil demon could be controlling all of our actions and deceiving us.

Question 11

Radical doubt

Answer 11

Descartes refused to accept anything as true unless it struck him as clearly and distinctly true, in itself.
Ex. ​​a Good God exists
All experiences of:
Sensory experience
Physics
Astronomy
Medicine
Arithmetic
geometry

Question 12

Mind/body dualism

Answer 12

The theory that the mind and the body do not work together to make decisions. This theory is followed by Descartes, where he claims that there is a distinction between mind and body.
Mind body
Indivisible (cannot separate my mind in - is divisible
Different parts) - bodies are extended things
Essence cannot be located in space (no
extension

Question 13

The piece of wax

Answer 13

When we see a candle, we notice the wax, the stick that lights on fire. When the candle is lit and melts until there is nothing but a pool of wax, we still know that it is the same candle. Even though they dont look the same or have the same properties, we still know that they are the same piece of wax through reason.

Question 14

Why Descartes needs an argument for God’s existence

Answer 14

Without the certaintly that God exists, Descartes believes that we will never have the ability to posses certain knowledge.

Question 15

The ontological argument for God’s existence

Answer 15

P1: I have a clear and distinct idea of God as a supremely perfect being
P2: Existence is a perfection

C1: Therefore, Existence is part of God’s essence
C2: Therefore, God necessarily exists

Question 16

The cosmological (causal) argument for God’s existence

Answer 16

I have an idea of God
The idea of God cannot come from me because the idea of God is more perfect than I am
The idea of God must have come from somewhere else
The cause of my idea of God must be God

God must exist

Question 17

Essence

Answer 17

the property or set of properties that a thing must have in order to be the thing that it is; the nature of a thing

Pure abstract mathematics are true and known clearly and distinctly (algebra, geometry)
That is, I can know mathematical things by their essence

Question 18

Imagination v. intellect

Answer 18

Humes a treatise of human nature:
Ideas are copies of sense impressions, and can be produced by imagination

Descartes meditation VI:
Imagination is picturing extended things in our heads. Extended things are material things. I can picture a triangle, but I can’t picture a chilligan. But, I can understand what a chilligan is without imagining it.
understanding/intellect allows us to think things without seeing it (like the chilligan example)
Imagination needs effort to imagine and it is not essential.
Need intellect to understand. It is essential to being.
Imagination Understanding
- requires effort - dont not seem to require effort
- not essential to human existence because - its essential to me
we can exist without imagination
- mind turns towards body (?) - mind turns to its own thought

Question 19

Descartes’s argument for the existence of external/material things

Answer 19

God would be deceiving us if the external world didn’t exist, therefore the external world must exist

Question 20

Elisabeth’s critique of Descartes

Answer 20

Elizabeth asks the question: how do the mind and body interact with each other if they are distinct?
Contact is required for things to be moved. For a thing to move, it must be moved by another thing (an extended thing). But, the soul does not have an extension since it is immaterial and therefore cannot come into contact with things in the material world. So, what kind of substance is a thinking thing (soul)?
response:
he suggests that the soul can act on the body with a non physical force but elizabeth is asking how the soul moves a body not that it just does

Question 21

Hume on personal identity

Answer 21

The mind forms through relationships, links between moments. All about relationships you’re making in the present that gives you your identity.
The question asked is if there is a self that remains the same over time? His claim is that the same personal identity does not exist overtime.
The “old” view is something that is constant and invariable
Example: a church that was burned down and completely rebuilt. We still recognize it as the same church, even though it looks completely different.
Example: I am still the same person as when I was an infant, child, adult, etc.
The self is a result of relatedness and not sameness. Sameness is being identical. Relatedness is like seeing a car, and recognizing the unity. Or we know traffic as a bunch of cars. There is a relation between cars/objects.
His claim - there is no unified and invariant self, only relationships between different ideas.

Question 22

Empiricism

Answer 22

Experience is the source of knowledge
No intuition
There are no innate concepts
Senses are primary source of knowledge
Induction (from particular to general)
Experimental science is the paradigm of knowledge
Experience and experiment rarely produce certainty

Question 23

Sartre

Answer 23

Sartre’s slogan (the existentialist slogan) is existence precedes essence. Meaning human beings exist first before their essence is defined.
Man is thrown into existence, and is nothing other that what he makes of himself.
There is a human condition: limitations that define a man’s fundamental situation in the universe.
Facticity is the givenness of one’s situation in the world, and transcendence is the ability to surpass the facticity.
We cannot transcend out subjectivity, meaning we cannot escape the fact that we must always make a choice
Human beings are radically free in deciding which projects they pursue, and have the unique ability to choose what it means to be a human being
We are also responsible for these actions, and are responsible for all of men (touched more during the bad faith explanation)

Question 24

De Beauvoir

Answer 24

One is not born a woman, but becomes a woman
There is no essence of a woman
The idea of proper womanhood/femininity is socially and historically produced by men
Women can transcend their facticity the same way as men can
women is the second sex because women have been forced to occupy a secondary role in relation to men
Man is the neutral category, and women is the “other”
Structures limiting women’s equality: inferior legal status, lack of rights, economic inequality
Men took women to be inferior, and wanted to secure the male position. Men made laws, religion, philosophy, etc.

Question 25

Existentialism

Answer 25

Existentialism is the belief that every individual is a free agent who is responsible for each action they take
Existence precedes essence
Reality exists only in action

Question 26

Bad Faith

Answer 26

When we do not take responsibility for our actions, lying to yourself, and saying that things must be the way they are.
Failure to take responsibility for your actions as legislating values
Lying to oneself (it’s ok if i do it)
Claiming that things must be as they are

Question 27

existence precedes essence

Answer 27

The idea that we make our identity and that it isnt an innate idea

Question 28

Radical freedom

Answer 28

Radical freedom is the theory that we are free to make any choices we want. For sartre, even a prisoner is free because he can choose what to make of the situation

Question 29

Anguish

Answer 29

The weight of responsibility when we choose
Since we are responsible for every action we take, we have a weight of responsibility. This is a burden to not only ourselves, but in choosing for yourself you choose for all of humanity.
Anguish is knowing that each choice has meaning

Burden not only on yourself, but also in choosing for all humankind

Question 30

Abandonment

Answer 30

Our freedom is radically ungrounded
God does not exist for Sartre
We are condemned to be free. We did not create ourselves, therefore condemned. We are also free, and once cast into the world are responsible for everything we do.
SInce there is no God, we have no moral laws or an all knowing source. We essentially need to figure ourselves out

We must bear all consequences of assertion- God does not exist

Question 31

Despair

Answer 31

The awareness that we cannot control the actions of others.

Question 32

Attacks against existentialism & Sartre’s responses

Answer 32

Encourages quietism & despair
Pessimistic concept of humanity
Ignores human solidarity
Egotistic subjectivism

Question 33

Subjectivity

Answer 33

Having uniqueness in a situation?

Question 34

Inter-subjective

Answer 34

A shared perception of reality between two or more individuals”

Question 35

Freedom

Answer 35

You don’t have anything stopping you from making choices

Question 36

Other

Answer 36

omeone who belongs to the socially subordinate category of the Other.

Question 37

freedom vs. liberation

Answer 37

freedom is unchanging, static. Liberation is active. one needs to struggle. liberation is everchanging. has themes of resistance, refusal.

Question 38

Intersectionality

Answer 38

“the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage