René Descartes

‘Meditations’ Review Rene Descartes’ meditations made me remind ‘Great Instauration’ of Bacon. Both of them wanted to strip an old and false knowledge and to gain a new and certain knowledge. However, the way to approach their goal is pretty different. Descartes, in the first meditation, explains that he studied a variety of studies during his lifetime, and judges the studies; ‘For I found myself involved in so many doubts and errors…’. An interesting point is a conclusion of his skeptical assessment because his conclusion recalls Socrates. Descartes says ‘[I] resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself, or of the great book of the world.’ I believe that this sentence is meaningful to understand his philosophy…

Rene Descartes was born to Joachim Descartes and Jeanna Brochard on May 31, 1596. He was the oldest of three (surviving) children. Descartes was born into a fairly wealthy family which was full of Doctors and Lawyers. He was raised by his grandmother, Jeanne Sain, in La Haye, France. He began to attend the Jesuit College at La Fleche, France during the year 1607. Descartes obtained a well-rounded liberal arts education before leaving the college in 1614. Between the years of 1615 and 1616 he…

Descartes, Rene’ was born in the era of the seventh century and the year was 1569- 1650 he was a man that so imputed by world of Philosophy of physics and to get humans to be able to understand that there comprehensive understanding of how the world should view all walks of life this might be a bird flying in the sky and to ask all questions about the bird, and in the end there would be and understanding of the bird existence, making sure to build a philosophical system that would include how…

Rationalism is a way of getting to the truth using only the logic of our minds, not including sensory input. The major strength of Rationalism is its universality. If I can think something is true, you can too! The lack of interest Rationalism has in sensory input is definitely a weakness. There are senses such as taste that cannot be proved by logic alone. Rene Descartes had a theory about wax and rationalism, called The Wax Argument. Descartes suggests that when we see, touch, or smell wax…

René Descartes, the famous French philosopher and brilliant 17th century Scholar is credited worldwide as the founder of modern western philosophy for his works in the fields of Ontology – a branch of metaphysics regarding the ‘nature of being’- and Epistemology – the study of knowledge. What set him apart from the ancient philosophers was his avoidance of the scholastic traditions to write only in Latin (the language that only highly educated people were trained in) and instead wrote in French…

René Descartes’s argument in the Second Meditation of Meditations on First Philosophy, normally referred to as the Cogito, after its Latin formulation cogito ergo sum (‘I think, therefore I am’), is arguably the most famous one in all of philosophy and can be considered as origin of modern philosophy. His premise ‘I am, I exist’ (p.21) , which he ambitiously sets out to prove in this Meditation, does not explicitly take this form though. His meditation is thinking about thinking and affirming…

Rene Descartes was a true pioneer of his time. In 1628, he wrote Rules for the Direction of the Mind, and within the first rule in summary implies that we as human beings should control our minds into making accurate and precise perceptions through what and how we experience these things. Through the first rule individuals can already safely assume that Rene Descartes is writing about rationalism. When one uses religion and faith to perceive the world around him, then he is subject to the…

Meditations On First Philosophy by Rene Descartes, Descartes begins questioning the world and his existence, specifically in the “Second Meditation”. In the “Second Meditation”, Descartes claims that all he can know for certain is that he, himself, is a thinking thing. He comes to this realization after he began to doubt everything that he had ever believed in his life. Descartes came to the conclusion that everything he had ever known in his life has been a result of his senses, however he then…

Rene Descartes’ “Discourse on the Method” is equal parts philosophical guideline and historical text. The core subtext of the book is that Descartes is sharing with the world the method that he has discovered with regard to reason that has helped him in his scientific endeavors. While there are numerous writing nuances found in this work, symbolism is one particular written trait that is not omnipresent in philosophical discourses like the one Descartes wrote here. Like many other philosophical…

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) published a series of thought experiments in 1641 called Meditations on First Philosophy. At the beginning of the Third Meditation, Descartes outlines the Problem of the External World. Predictably, without reading the First and Second Meditations, the problem is difficult to grasp. Therefore, I will provide a summary of what took place before I continue. In the First Meditation, Descartes, contemplates the great number of falsehoods he has come to believe over the…