Descartes

Question 1

1. The method of doubt.
   (The dream argument)

Answer 1

In dreams, things can feel very real, but are phenomenologically false, Descartes conceived of a way of searching for certainty by systematically, though tentatively, doubting everything.

Question 2

2. The knowledge that Descartes wants is a firm and stable ground to do Science.

Answer 2

From the starting point of doubting everything, there was reason is no assumptions being made. Thus, other knowledge, including scientific knowledge, could be built

It is therefore reasonable to conclude that physics, astronomy are doubtful, whilst geometry, for example, is not.

Question 3

3. The notion of vivid and clear ideas for Descartes.

Answer 3

1. What do I know myself to be: a thinking thing
   What else do I know?
   
   2. If I’m certain I’m a thinking thing, then I know what it’s like to be certain of something
      What’s that like?
   3. It’s to have a vivid and clear perception that something is true
      So, whatever is seen clearly and vividly is true

Question 4

4. Why vivid and clear ideas are true even in dreams And why this matters for his project

Answer 4

he concludes that even if one were dreaming, the content of certain ideas remains true because these ideas are not dependent on sensory experience or the external world—they arise from pure reasoning.

For example, mathematical truths (like 2 + 3 = 5) remain valid whether we are awake or dreaming because they don’t rely on any external reality, only on the logical structure of the ideas themselves. Similarly, clear and distinct ideas, being self-evident and derived from reason alone, are true in both states because they don’t require an external world for their validity.

Question 5

The causal argument for the existence of God

Answer 5

‘that the total cause of something must contain at least as much reality as does the effect’
- For the effect gets it reality from the cause.
- Descartes makes two observations from this:
○ That something cannot arise from nothing
○ What is more perfect (contains in itself more reality) cant arise from something less perfect.

“The more carefully I concentrate on these attributes, the less possible it seems that any of them could have originated from me alone. So this whole discussion implies that God necessarily exists.”

Question 6

The ontological argument for the existence of God

Answer 6

Good example of a rationalist argument)
1. God is the supremely perfect Being
2. By definition, what is perfect must exist
- How can something be omnipotent, eternal, omniscient, immutable, etc. and not exist?
3. So, it is vivid and clear that God must exist - (he’s perfect after all!)
- To deny this is like denying that the internal angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees