Knowledge and Doubt - Descartes Flashcards
What were Descartes’ aims?
To find something firm and lasting in the sciences.
To prove God beyond doubt.
To create a rationalist alternative to Aristotle’s empiricism.
To unify all knowledge claims.
What was Descartes’ rigorous, shortcut approach?
To attack the foundations on which his former knowledge claims lay.
What was Descartes’ method?
To raze all his knowledge to the ground and begin again from the foundations.
What did Descartes’ rigorous shortcut demand he do?
To never trust wholly in those who have deceived us even once.
What knowledge did Descartes get rid of first?
Empirical/sense/a posteriori knowledge.
How did Descartes’ push scepticism to its limit?
Using the evil deceiver.
Why is the dream argument weak?
Because we can know when we are awake - dreams don’t follow a linear timeline and strange things happen, that do not happen when we are awake.
