René Descartes

perceived and acknowledge matter through senses including taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing, but activity of the brain is not considered to be a sense. Descartes believed that there are solely two substances to ever exist, mind and matter. Descartes supposed that the body is nothing but a statue or a machine where the way the body functions can be accounted for mechanically except for the activities of the mind where none can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted or heard. Along with sensation, Descartes believes that the mind also influences the body through emotions and feelings. This theory is called “Dualism”, introduced by Descartes, proposing the theory explaining the unification of, two different substances,…

The subject of philosophy is a study that can be viewed in many different ways. Some ways vary in extremes from one another, but they all wish to pursue the same thing; the understanding of knowledge and human excellence. One of the most popular arguments is the comparison of mind and body. Through this paper I will go in depth on the individuals theories and discoveries, then compare them using the ideas from Plato’s Phaedo and Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy. Both philosophers…

Dolegui Wilfried Nanfack PHIL 2101-(ET6) For this paper, I’ll be talking about Descartes’s argument for dualism in the “sixth Meditation” and “multiple personalities”. Descartes, both as a philosopher and scientist, is at two levels of understanding of the real. It’s back to nature in a mechanistic framework to which the body is subjected, and at the same time, it supports a dualism of soul and body in which the soul escapes the body determinations. In his sixth…

Within this essay I aim to compare the different discussions of language found in Hobbes (Leviathan, Chapter IV: Of Speech), Locke (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Bk.III: Chapter I: Of Words of Language in General) and Berkeley (A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Introduction §19 ff). To do this, I will be providing an account of each of the scholar’s views and from this distinguishing the similarities and differences of these views. The philosophy of language…

Throughout his “Meditations” Descartes will demonstrate that he is breaking away from the traditional way of thinking and metaphysics. And, throughout the text Descarte will lay out a foundation to a different way of thinking. One in which one does not solely rely on the senses to know things, but instead rely on an inspection of the mind. But, this conflicts with other philosophers of Descartes time, and it conflicts with what is being taught within the schools, Around Descartes time, many of…

The human mind has proliferated much polemic discussions questioning the origin of mankind’s knowledge. Rationalism proponents, who claim that the mind developed based on reason, rebutted the theory that the mind developed based on experiences. Other proponents, the advocators of empiricism, believed that human knowledge derived from sensory experiences. In addition, empiricist philosophers adamantly supported the tabula rasa, preaching how humans were born with a clear mind where experiences…

a heliocentric theory that the sun was the center of the solar system, not the Earth. This theory differed from Aristotle’s view of the Earth being the fixed point. Some other philosophers that started the beginning of the Enlightenment were Voltaire and Diderot. Voltaire wrote the book Candide, which is a satirical book that rejects the ideas of the Roman Catholic Church. Along with Voltaire, Diderot was also a very influential person during the Enlightenment. He is known for writing the…

The state of nature is like being in a zombie movie. It sucks. This is the plot for the popular series “The Walking Dead”. No one can be trusted, and those we do are held to a verbal and at times armed contract, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine”. In forming these contracts, we give up our freedom for protection and security. This is the thinking of 16th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes. Pessimistic, he believed that all human acts were motivated by self-interest and the quest for power.…

As no one specific belief is correct several philosophers have comparable views of epistemology. The difference between rationalism and empiricism is not as clear-cut as proposed. Rationalist were committed to empirical sciences and may have been close to Descartes methods. The question “How do we know?” has been transformed by empiricist and have changed the experimental method for today’s society. Descartes contributions are huge and very important to science and philosophy. In his book, Rules…

Doubtful Dreams As any other philosopher, Rene Descartes was driven by the need to find the undeniable truth. He was very upset when he realized as a young man that many of the things he was taught in school was scarcely supported by evidence, if not out right false (Pojman & Vaughn, 2011, p.487). Therefore, when he began his foray into philosophy, he decided would deny and ignore all previously accepted opinions and build an entirely new foundation of truth to build on (Tweyman, 2013,…