In Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes attempts to reconcile a Christian metaphysics with a new epistemology contrary to the scholastic, Aristotelian worldview. He seeks new foundations that knowledge can be built upon and tries to accomplish this by identifying basic, indubitable axioms to derive more complex truths by. As Descartes had a background in mathematics and geometry, these tenets are proposed alike mathematical truths in that they are self-evidential. He calls these axioms…
Elizabeth’s understanding of causation cannot explain all causal interactions (e.g. the relation of time and the body which causes the process of aging). Therefore, there are some things that we cannot truly comprehend. One of those things, according to Descartes, is the causal relationship between the mind and the body. In this paper I have argued that Princess Elizabeth’s criticism exposed an important weakness in Descartes’s theory. Princess Elizabeth questioned the ability of an immaterial…
Throughout history, philosophers have been setting up plenty of theories to determine if the mind and the body are one. Substance dualism is one of those theories. Specifically, Descartes is a dualist who brings up the indivisibility argument about the mind that has been trusted until science is well developed. Even though Descartes’ argument is well-accepted, it is not strongly supported by factual evidence, and it is easily defeated by a simple question, which is how the mind and the body…
debates is on the subject on Human nature. In the given paper, I am going to compare Cleanthes’ and Philo’s views on Deity and reflect upon their disagreements on the inductive argumentation, and provide the explanation of deductive reasoning in Descartes’ “Meditations of first philosophy”. The key concept of a worldview promoted by Cleanthes states that God can be beheld via one’s observations and the process of thinking. He is an advocate of a so-called “natural religion”.…
Socrates and Rene Descartes are alike in their most fundamental motives but yet contrasting in results both trying to improve thinking but about two different things. One example would be how they each convey their message formal versus informal, another would be their life style and beliefs of how things should be done. Both Socrates and Descartes have completely different views on getting their desired results, and the level of risk one is willing to take to accomplish certain results.…
Paul Gustave Marie Camille Hazard, born August 30th, the year of 1878 was a French educator, a historian of ideas, and a scholar of comparative literature. The Crisis of the European Mind, which is written by Hazard, is filled with intellectual history that gives the synopsis of the creation of Modern Europe. Hazard’s book takes a look at the transition from the old world to the new world, new developments such as science, arts, and philosophy, and how characters such as Pierre Bayle and John…
Dualism vs Materialism The mind/body problem, the question of what is the relationship between the mind and the body, is commonly seen as a key issue in the philosophy of the mind (Sober, 2013, p. 204). The two categories of views discussed in Sober’s ‘Core Questions in Philosophy’ that attempt to resolve the mind/body problem are dualism and materialism. Dualism is the theory that the mind and the brain are two fundamentally different substances (Sober, 2013, p. 204). Conversely, materialism…
Past life regression is the process of going back in time to one's previous existence, while under hypnosis. Past life regression, also known as PLR fist became known in the case of Bridley Murphy in 1952. Virginia Tighe while under hypnosis reported a vision of a 19th century Irish woman named Bridley Murphy. Further investigations still have not determined if there ever was a 19th century Irish woman named Bridley Murphy. It is fact however, that Ms. Tighe as a child lived across the street…
For Locke, personal identity does not subsist on the substance it is made of, be it of physical or spiritual nature (p. 16-17). For, if personal identity would rely on physical matter, it would mean that losing an arm or leg would constitute a new identity. Locke says that by seeing a person without an arm as the same person they were with the arm, is proof that “the substance whereof personal self consisted at one time may be varied at another” (p. 15). Thus, if the physical is not what…
The question concerning what makes up the self is an ancient one. From Early philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, to modern philosophers such as Rene´ Descartes and David Hume as well as many others, that question is fundamental. Though several theories of what makes up the self exist, we find that one heavily argued theory is dualism. Hence, I will against Aristotle’s point of view of the self and dualism. TERMS First, however, it is important to establish certain terms and their meaning…