René Magritte

The Renaissance was probably one of the most known epochs in human history. But what most don’t know about is the Baroque Era and the Enlightenment Era. There were a lot of events that occurred during this time period that make it slightly different than the Renaissance, and a lot of it had to do with social aspects. One of the most controversial events that was happening was the Thirty Years’ War. According to the textbook, it took place “from 1618 to 1648, a series of wars raged throughout…

Descartes: Proofs for God existence and the nature of human’s mistakes Rene Descartes, a famous French philosophy, was known as “the Father of modern philosophy”. With his formidable and broad knowledge, Descartes fostered his desire to seek for only true beliefs that were certain and indubitably true. In his work, the Rene Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes reiterated his intellectual process of doubting and questioning all the essences of corporeal and intangible…

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…

Searle and Descartes being separated by nearly four centuries provides a rough landscape for a philosophical discussion to be conducted upon. Both Searle and Descartes have inherent biases based upon their location on the timeline, Searle with modern science and Descartes with religion and the church. Being that the two are opposed, I think that Searle is able to articulate effectively his positions and respond to Descartes’ claims properly. If positioned at the same location along the timeline…

When we fall asleep and we dream how do we distinguish if what we are seeing or imagining is real or not? How do we even know if we are imagining what we are seeing, or if what we are seeing is actuality? Based on The Matrix, humans are always in a dream-like state. The film depicts humans attached to a huge artificial intelligence system called the Matrix run by evil machines. This system controls the human mind and conveys it with virtual reality depicting life. In the film, after Morpheus…

Human beings are thinking creatures but they are more than that. They live their lives with different memories and experiences to guide them along the way. To prove that a person knows whom they are by proving that they think is nonsensical. Within Descartes’s meditation is the nature of humans will be shown through the thinking thing or cogito but this is not accurate at all because humans are more complex beings than just thinking things. First, I will demonstrate what the second meditation,…

Descartes is trying to prove the existence of God, and the reason he is doing so he can further try to prove the existence of everything else. He did so by going through a series of meditations. In his fifth meditation Descartes said that the mind and the body are two distinct substances. His main premise was Cogito Ergo Sum which means I think therefore I am. With Cogito Ergo Sum he is certain of his existence. He differentiates understanding a concept and imagination, then goes onto say that…

Is our universe one complicated computer game with us being mere artificial intelligence made of ones and zeros? This is a strange question, one that I believe cannot be totally disproven or proven but what can we know no matter the answer? The philosopher Descartes wrestled with similar questions. He was concerned about the nature of our reality and more specifically the nature of our knowledge. (Descartes 166-167) He wanted to form a base for knowledge and a method to prove that what we know…

The unique and foremost influence to psychology that Descartes had was his consideration of the mind-body interaction. Descartes lived as a French philosopher and mathematician who; in the early 17th century, agreed with the notion of a clockwork universe. According to the text, this notion of the times proposed that the universe could be likened to a clock due to the fact of its constancy, predictability, and exactitude. The clock could act as an allegory to expound upon the workings of the…