Meditations 1: about the things we may doubt

Question 1

doubt

Answer 1

P has the possibility of being false

Question 2

belief

Answer 2

to hold p to be true (but this is out holding of P and P might be false)

Question 3

knowledge

Answer 3

justified true belief

Question 4

certainty

Answer 4

we (as humans) find it impossible to doubt P

Question 5

Indubitability

Answer 5

P cannot possibly be false. It is self-guaranteeing: it is not possible both for us to believe it and for it to be flase

Question 6

what is Descartes appraoch

Answer 6

use scepticism to find certainty

Question 7

outline how Descartes intended to cast doubt on everything

Answer 7

foundationalism:
1st his senses, the reality (doesn’t matter if he doesn’t specifically doubt his dreams because they’re based one reality.) Then he attempts to doubt God, however this proves to be difficult as he cannot see why God would fool him so he introduces the evil demon.

Question 8

How does Descartes doubt his senses?

Answer 8

Highlights how he can doubt his sense-the bent stick argument
However the problem that arises from doubting everything that his senses tell him is that there is no meaningful distinction, you need both certainty and doubt to have meaningful distinction, and therefore Descartes is back to square 1.
use forged £2 coin example.

Question 9

What does Descartes say about Dreaming?

Answer 9

the same need for a meaningful distinction can be said for dreaming-between normal and illusionary situations. This means normal must sometimes be the case. However it is hard to tell whether a particular example is veridical or not-so we can doubt because it it hard to tell.
But, this isn’t at the moment that bigger of a deal because: same certain a priori truth eg artist example

Question 10

Descartes and Hyperbolic Doubt aka the evil demon

Answer 10

many of Descartes contemporaries would have argued that our a priori truths (space, time, numbers etc) were all certain. But Descartes as a voluntarist, this means he believes that God does not have to operate within these “eternal truths”. Therefore it is not logically impossible (indoubtable) for the eternal truths of mathematics and logic to be otherwise.
so God could be deceiving us-however that would go against who God is-balance it out-evil demon.

Question 11

Descartes and Cognitive Limits

Answer 11

Descartes didn’t come up with this argument.
we assume that because we cannot perceive of a priori truths being any other way they must be true across the universe. Yet they might just be facts about us and an alien world way be based on entirely different ones.