René Descartes

possibility of an after-life. Plato and Descartes are notorious for substance dualism which is also known as mind-body dualism, the believe that the soul is able to live on without the presence of the physical substance, the body. In this essay I will describe and assess the argument of substance dualism postulated by Rene Descartes (1596-1650). My thesis is that Descartes’ argument for substance dualism is not very persuasive and Gilbert Ryle manages…

René Descartes was a French philosopher born in 1596. He is often thought of the “Father of Modern Philosophy”. He is also recognized for his work in mathematics, and sciences, where he created a universal method of deductive reasoning. Although he is known for all of theses, his primary field of study was in Philosophy. His most famous quote is “I think, therefore I am” (first written in French “Je pense, donc je suis”). From this quote he developed his reasoning for the existence of God.…

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,…

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,…

Rene Descartes’ statement, “I at least know for certain that nothing is certain” perfectly illustrates the multiple problems that arise when all rational beings realize that their senses can deceive them and that the very foundation of their knowledge is based on the assumption that everything they encounter is real. Thankfully, being aware of the problem is the first step in solving it. The juxtaposition of Rene Descartes and William Shakespeare reveals a difference of opinion when they set…

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…

Rene Descartes published his Meditations back in 1641, eight years after Galileo discovered that the Earth was not the center of the universe but, in fact, the sun was the center. This shook many people’s ideologies on what they knew on religion, their senses, and what it meant to gain knowledge. While Rene Descartes is very well known for his Cogito erg Sum ( I think therefore I am), he also came up with a theory of Substance Dualism. Substance Dualism is Rene Descartes way of explaining the…

In his fifth meditation, Rene Descartes gives an argument that he believes proves the existence of god from a purely intellectual, non-empirical framework. His ontological argument attempts to prove the mere concept of god is evidence for his existence. Although Descartes portrays the meditations as starting with no preconceived notions, his own biased definition of necessary qualities is the cause of fault within this work. Upon examining the disjoint comparison made between the mathematical…

René Descartes’ dream argument supports his overarching argument for hyperbolic doubt, described in his Meditations on First Philosophy. The dream argument questions one’s perceptions, conscious and unconscious, and how one determines what is true and what is false. He does this by comparing experiences while awake or dreaming. Descartes continues on that since one also cannot tell the difference between what is a dream and what is real life, our perceptions could overall be false, and “assumes…

summarizes the main point of Rene Descartes’s version of the ontological argument as: “The essence or defining nature of each kind of thing includes certain predicates, and Descartes’s ontological argument claims that existence must be among the defining predicates of God… [s]o existence is a necessary characteristic of a supremely perfect being” (Hick 18). The main premise of Descartes’s argument is that God’s existence can be deducted from the nature of God. Descartes used the analogy of…