Descartes Notes

Phil 214 Notes:

Descartes first calls all our beliefs into doubt. Then, consider as false all that is doubtful. Descartes first cast doubt on the senses, and provides 2 reasons to doubt the senses. The first reason is that the senses have been known to deceive us (e.g. the optical illusion of smallness created by a distance), and the second reason, or the Dream Argument is that when we are asleep we often have sensations that are indistinguishable from those that we have when we are awake. Descartes then casts doubt on mathematical demonstrations and other self-evident truths, and provides two reasons to doubt those. The first is that people often make mistakes when it comes to these subject. The second reason is that if the author of our being is all powerful then he might have created us so that we are always deceived of the certainty of these truths. If the author of our being is less powerful, then the greater the reason to believe that we are deceived. Descartes states the fact that we have a free will, and we can thus withhold assent to all that is doubtful and not fall into error. After attempting to undermine all our beliefs, Descartes states the one belief that resists all these attempts: the fact that I exist. (1st certainty). The very act of thought proves existence, for one cannot think without existing. Descartes then argues that we know the existence of our minds more clearly than we know our bodies. Descartes argument:

(1) Every attribute must belong to some substance.

(2) The more attributes I come to know of anything, the better I know that it exist.

(3) Whenever I come to know an attribute of anything, I come to know an attribute of my mind( the attribute that is responsible for me coming to know the attribute that I came to know)

For some, the fact that we know our minds more clearly we know our bodies is counterintuitive. Descartes believes that those have failed to distinguish between the mind and the body. Thought, according to...