intuition and deduction thesis

Question 1

what is Descartes Intuition and deduction thesis

Answer 1

Descartes’ intuition and deduction thesis claims to find intuitions such as that we exist and then use them as the premises in deductive arguments to ultimately prove God’s existence and the existence of the external world.

Question 2

intuition definition

Answer 2

Intuition is when one immediately sees the truth in something, which means without any process of reasoning or inference. The mind simply ‘grasps’ the rational rules by which we intuit that 2+2 necessarily equals 4. Descartes claims there is a ‘natural light’ of the mind which makes us recognize certain truths because we cannot doubt them.

Question 3

deduction definition

Answer 3

Deduction is using premises to reach a conclusion the truth of which is entailed by the truth of the premises. If we can know that the premises are true and that the conclusion follows deductively from them then we can know the truth of the conclusion.

Question 4

clear and distinct ideas

Answer 4

Descartes claims that the cogito is apprehended by his mind in a special way which he calls clarity and distinctness. A clear idea is ‘present and accessible to the attentive mind’ – analogous to perceiving something visual clearly with our eye. An idea is distinct when it is so sharply separated from all other ideas that every part of it is clear’. Descartes claims that since the Cogito is a clear and distinct idea which he knows to be true, then clarity and distinctness must ‘as a general rule’ be a sign of truth.

Question 5

Cogito

Answer 5

p1. i think
c1. therefore i doubt
c2. therefore i am
first argument in his I+D thesis