Descartes Flashcards
Meditation 3: What makes the cogito certain?
it is a clear and distinct idea.
Meditation 3: What does Descartes suppose once he says he can believe the cogito because its a clear and distinct idea? + quote
- Whatever else he understands clearly and distinctly might be true.
- ‘is seems to me that i can already establish a general rule that all the things we conceive very clearly and distinctly are true.’
Meditation 3: Criticisms to believing something just because its a clear and distinct idea (2)
- thin evidence, just because one belief can be knowable because it can be grasped clearly and distinctly it doesn’t mean that we can conclude that all/ any beliefs grasped this way are true.
RYLE: - Descartes thinks that just by examining a belief we can tell if its true or not, if the idea is clear and distinct enough then its true. So we can establish a truth just by looking at the nature of the belief.
- Ryle says trying to establish a truth just by looking at the nature of the belief is like trying to work out whether you have scored a goal just by looking at the shot.
- this is impossible, and so is establishing a belief just by looking at the belief itself.
Meditation 3: Why is the cogito self verifying
- we can know the cogito is true just by examining the belief
- the belief and the fact coincide.
Meditation 3: What could Descartes say instead of saying that all beliefs recognisable clearly and distinctly must be true?
that all self justifying beliefs (the cogito) must be true.
Meditation 3: Problem of certainty and clear & distinct ideas?
- How can D be sure that he clearly and distinctly understands something, it could seem that he does when he doesnt. E.g demon could fool him.
- He would need some criterion to distinguish between belief which he does and doesnt understand clearly and distinctly.
- Even if he had this criterion, how would he known whether he was using it correctly?
Meditation 3: Descartes quote about how he needs to prove gods existence to be certain
‘i must inquire whether there is a god…and if i find that there is one, i must also inquire whether he can deceitful, for without the certain knowledge of these two truths, i do not see that i can ever e certain of anything.’
Meditation 3: according to Descartes what is deception a mark of
weakness and evil
Meditation 3: Basic idea in hallmark argument
Descartes idea of God would not have appeared in his mind if there was no God.
Meditation 3: Basic argument for the hallmark argument
An idea of an infinite being cannot be produced from the mind of a finite being. So the cause of such a being must be from a being which is really infinite.
Meditation 3: Quote about hallmark argument & causal principle.
‘there must be at least as much reality in the efficient and total cause as in the effect’
Meditation 3: What is the causal principle?
the idea that the effect cannot be more perfect or contain more reality than its cause.
The lesser cannot give birth to the greater.
Meditation 3: What does the causal principle entail?
- That our ideas must come from something which must have at least as much reality and perfection as the ideas themselves.
- Could be us? But idea of god cannot come from us, so must come from something outside of us.
- The cause of my idea of god must be at least as perfect as my idea of god, the only person who can be the cause of it is God.
Meditation 3: Why cant our idea of god not come from ourselves?
God is an infinite substance with great attributes. We are finite substances, and are not sufficiently perfect to create the idea of god ourselves.
So we are not the cause of our idea of god.
Meditation 3: Why are we only finite substances?
Because we make mistakes.
Meditation 3: Why can ideas not be false + quote
- even if there is nothing outside of my mind, my ideas cannot be false it is only the judgements that i make based on my ideas that are false, e.g there being a physical world.
’ whether i imagine a goat or a chimera, it is no less true that i imagine the one than the other.’
Meditation 3: why can primary qualities be clearly and distinctly grasped
- they have clear representational content, i know what they picture
- they lend themselves to geometric description
Meditation 3: what does Descartes mean by ideas having different objective realities
- They have different representational content, what our ideas represent can be more or less prefect.
- The more perfect the thing which the idea represents, the more objective reality it possess.
- e.g, substances are more perfect than modes so have more subjective reality, because if either of them were to exist beyond my mind, modes would rely on substances for their existence so are less perfect.
Meditation 3: Objective reality: how is the hierarchy organised?
- how high an idea sits in terms of its degree objective reality depends on where what it represents would sit in terms of its dependence on other things, or its degree of perfection.
- depending on what idea has the most formal qualities
Meditation 3: what are actual/ formal properties?
used to denote the degree of perfection possessed by actual things rather than ideas.
Meditation 3: Example + quote about causal principle
- example of stone, whatever produced the stone must have been sufficient to have produced it.
- the stone cannot come into existence ‘unless it be produced by something which has…everything that enters into the composition of a stone.’
Meditation 3: what is objective reality caused by? + quote
- something with sufficient formal reality to produce that level of objective reality.
- ‘…it must be undoubtably receive it from some cause, in which is to be found at least as much formal reality as this idea contains objective reality.’
Meditation 3: Why must God have caused the idea of God
- the cause of my idea of god must have at least as much formal reality as the idea has objective reality, the only thing which can be the cause of it is God.
- The idea of an infinite substance could not have originated in a finite substance.
- the only cause with sufficient reality to cause the idea of an infinite being would have to be an infinite being, so the idea of God must have been planted in me by God so God exists.
Meditation 3: Arguments against the causal principle (3)
- It is possible to produce something with more perfection and reality that there originally was in the cause. –> e.g match and bomb fire/ whisper and avalanche.
- Chaos theory - great effects can follow from small causes, example of butterfly wing flap setting off chain of events leading to a hurricane.
- Quantum physics - deny that all events have causes which are adequate to them.
Meditation 3: Criticism to hallmark argument: Hume
- Hume doesnt think we can determine the cause of anything just by looking at its effect.
- We cannot deduce a priori what the cause of something is
- we make judgments on the causes of things based on past experience –> window and something heavy enough to break glass.
- So the only way we can tell what the cause of something is, is by observing it in conjunction with its effect.
- Therefore, by simple consideration of my idea of God, i cannot know what must have caused it.
Meditation 3: Criticism to hallmark argument: Hobbes
- There arent degrees of reality, things either exist or they dont
- One thing or idea cannot be have more ‘reality’ than another.
- So the hierarchy among ideas is nonsense.
Meditation 3: Descartes quote about idea of God
‘the idea by which i conceive a God who is sovereign, eternal, infinite, unchangeable, all knowing, all powerful and universal Creator of all things outside himself.’
Meditation 3: Criticism to hallmark argument: no idea of infinite being
- some theistic philosophers have expressed doubts about whether the human mind can frame a positive idea about God, because of our imperfections and finitude.
- God is too great for humans to understand, we cannot conceive of infinity. We can express the idea of a finite being in words, but not truly understand it.
- so we have no real understanding of an infinite being, therefore there is no problem about where the idea comes from.
Meditation 3: Criticism to hallmark argument: incoherent idea of god
- Descartes says that God is all powerful
- what would be the answer to the question ‘Can God set himself a task that he cannot perform?’
Yes –> there is a task he cannot perform
No –> there is a task he cannot perform - either way, god is not all powerful
- this paradox suggests Descartes’ idea of god is confused, and a confused idea could not have come from God, so it must have come from within him and is an example of faulty human thinking.
