Rene Descartes Second Meditation Essay

Rene Descartes lived between 1596-1650. He is known as the creator of coordinate geometry, also known as analytical geometry, which is where we get calculus from. He is also known for his works in physics and in astronomy writing both “The World” in 1633 and the “principals of philosophy” in 1644. Descartes was one of the first to put together the idea that we commonly known as the scientific method, he talks about his establishment of it in both “rules or direction of the mind” and “Discourage on the method”. Lastly he is considered the father of modern philosophy.
Beyond the history behind Descartes we go into his first meditation. In this meditation Descartes rejects the idea of tradition being an authority over people’s beliefs. He also recognizes that we are all heavily influenced by our traditions and commonly how we form our own beliefs. In order to separate his beliefs from traditions he takes part in what is known as radical doubt, or shifting through beliefs to find falsehood. The reason Descartes partakes in this act of radical doubt is to see which of his beliefs remain certain, for as we all know no theory is …show more content…
How can these certainties be justified though? The answer to that is the basis of foundation belief, which is a thought that in itself cannot be doubted, doesn’t require justification, and can provide grounds for justifying everything else we believe. An example of this would be to bring about two different instances. One of which is “I see a pen on the table” and the other is “I seem to see a pen on the table”. When you put the first statement with the second statement it is safe to say that you are having a cup like experience. However, the first statement by itself brings into question whether or not the person seeing the pen is dreaming. The second statement though brings a specific instance to the absolute certainty “I am