descartes Flashcards
adventitious ideas
Adventitious ideas arise in your mind due to some external agency
innate ideas
have existed in your mind since its conception
fictitious ideas
product of the mind’s own invention
the CAP quote
‘Now it is manifest by the natural light that there must be at least as much in the efficient and total cause as in the effect of that cause’
what’s the malicious demon? quote
‘an agency which acts purposefully and systematically to frustrate human inquiry and the desire for truth’
indistinguishability thesis quote
‘there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep’
Descartes intuition definition
‘intuition is the indubitable conception of a clear and attentive mind which proceeds solely from the light of reason.’
wax argument quote
‘Every consideration whatsoever which contributes to my perception of the wax, or of any other body, cannot but establish even more effectively the nature of my own mind.’
how will CAP help Descartes break outta his theatre?
If the objective reality of any of my ideas turns out to be so great that I am sure the same reality does not reside in me, either formally or eminently, and hence that I myself cannot be its cause, it will necessarily follow that I am not alone in the world
descartes god definition
By the word ‘God’ I understand a substance that is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else (if anything else there be) that exists
stage of doubt when the demon is introduced
‘there is not one of my former beliefs about which a doubt may not be properly raised’
Descartes reason for doubt given in the synopsis
‘although the usefulness of such extensive doubt is not apparent at first sight, its greatest benefit lies in freeing us from all our preconceived opinions, and providing the easiest route by which the mind may be led away from the senses. The eventual result of this doubt is to make it impossible for us to have any further doubts about what we subsequently discover to be true’
Descartes’ search for first principles
‘to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last’
proof that the external world exists
‘I do not see how God could be understood to be anything but a deceiver if these ideas were transmitted by a source other than corporeal things. It follows that corporeal things exist’
an atheist can’t know anything for certain
5M ‘the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends uniquely on the knowledge of the true God’
faculty of the will define
the will simply consists in our ability to do or not to do something; or rather, it consists simply in the fact that when the intellect puts something forward, we are moved to affirm or deny or to pursue or avoid it in such a way that we do not feel ourselves to be determined by any external force
relationship between intellect and will (own words)
intellect perceives the claims or judgements to which the will assents to or rejects
why is it problematic that ‘the scope of the will is wider than that of the intellect’?
The will can push our intellect into assenting to claims which are not actually within our understanding
what does Descartes want from the cogito?
Archimedes used to demand just one firm and inmovable point in order to shift the entire earth; so too I can hope for great things if I manage to find just one thing, however slight, that is certain and unshakeable
descartes’ formulation of the cogito
I am, I exist is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind
2 places Hobbes attacks the Trademark argument
1) representation theory of ideas; reality doesn’t admit of degrees, a hierarchy among ideas is ridiculous
2) idea of God: says we don’t have a clear mental image of God
Gassendi’s objection ontological argument
“existence is not a perfection either in God or in anything else; it is that without which no perfections can be present”
Caterus’ objection to ontological argument
Conceptual existence isn’t the same as actual existence
Descartes’ reply to Caterus’ objection to ontological argument
‘all these objections refer to possible existence. My argument refers to necessary existence’