RENE DESCARTES Flashcards
french philosopher, mathematician ad scientist
Rene Descartes
Father of modern Philosophy
Rene Descartes
The rist thinker that emphasize the use of reason to describe, predict and understand Natural phenomena based on observational and empirical evidence
Rene Descartes
Hyperbolical?Metaphysical Doubt
- Principal tool of discipline and inquiry
- Methodological Skepticism
- systematic process of being skeptical about the truths of one’s belief in order to determine which belief’s could be ascertained as true ( Roger 1994, Philosophy Glossary of the University of Houston)
Cogito ergo sum
“i think therefore, I am”
became the fundamental element of westerns philosophy as it secured the foundation of knowledge in the face of Radical doubt
the Face of Radical Doubt
everything perceived by the senses could not be used as a proof of existence because human senses could be fooled.
What is the one thing that we can be sure of this word according to Descartes?
everything could be doubted
What is the one thing we cannot doubt (Descartes)
The fact that we are doubting
The act of doubting
by doubting his own existence, Descartes proved that there is thinking entity that is doing the act of doubting.
Which basically means since we are doubting, we are thinking, and since we are thinking we are existing.
Descartes Claim about the “Self”
It is constant: not prone to change and it is not affected by time
Only the immaterial soul remains the same throughout time
the immaterial soul is the source of our identity
What is the immaterial substance (Descartes)
the self
a thinking entity that could exist without a body
- Possess a body and is so bound/ joined by it that the “Self” forms a union with its body
- despite the union, he asserted that the soul is still distinct form the body.
TRUE OR FALSE: A thinking entity can exist without the body because it is an immaterial substance
TRUE
Distinctions of the Soul: Conscious
thinking substance that is unaffected by time
Distinctions of the Soul: Known to only it self
only you know your own mental events and others cannot correct your mental states
Distinctions of the Soul: Not made up by parts
it views the entirety of itself with no hidden or separate compartments. it is both conscious and aware of itself at the same time.
