René Descartes

made their mark on learned psychology over the last century. The first one who comes to mind is Rene` Descartes who lived from 1596 – 1650 he believed that the basic premise of people’s actions wasn’t decided through automatic or mechanistic natural laws. Descartes believed that all basic human behavior is learned completely through conscious free will and blatant intent. After a period of time Descartes himself started to make exceptions to the rule as he began to realize that people react to…

Melissa Moody Philosophy 201 25 April 2016 When we think you knowing something we tend to think of what we believe in. It could be something as small as a mathematical equation or something as big as knowing whether or not God exist. Either way everyone has a belief that turns into knowledge. There are a number of ways to be justified in believing each belief that we have, but the question of whether it is the truth arises. We could think about some different readings like The Matrix, The…

Mary grew up in a strict household with her father (Peter) and mother (Mary). She had two brothers, but only one lived. Her uncle, Ralph Astell taught her some literature and philosophy, which was the start of her being a writer. Her father died at the age of 12. This caused her family to move in with their uncle. Mary’s mom died in 1668. She then moved to Chelsea, London. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies was the first book she wrote, which broaden her feminism. This book was published in…

church had said to be true; so, people began to question what else could be false. Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes discusses this topic and goes as far as outlining an argument as to why God is real. Descartes was writing at the same time of the scientific revolution and he even contributed to scientific discoveries. Therefore, it is questionable as to whether Descartes leans more towards science or religion. His ontological argument goes step by step trying to prove God’s…

Skepticism,” he expands on the idea that ‘we cannot know anything,’ by outlining four different arguments supporting the claim. (Huemer 47-57) René Descartes holds the opposite opinion, which he discusses in ‘Meditations One and Two.’ While there is validity to both sides of the argument, Huemer’s essay proves to be more reliable after dissecting Descartes’ concepts of existence. Huemer proposes that no one can know anything about the external world, or anything that exists outside of the mind.…

Philosopher Rene Descartes wrote an influential piece named the “Meditations on First Philosophy.” In this work, his “First Meditation” mainly deals with doubt of existence and how doubt is made possible because of sensory deception. He creates the dream argument that argues about how it is possible to be uncertain about whether or not a person is in a real world or dream world. In philosopher G.E. Moore’s “Certainty” he attempts to debunk Descartes’ argument through showing the inconsistencies…

hands to clench into fists, blood-veins to become constricted and more visible, and facial appearances to change. While Berkeley would only go so far as to say that the mind is capable of perceiving an emotion of anger through visual perception, Descartes would likely go further than that and agree that the mind and the body, while separate, still communicate emotions in a very similar matter. Putting this into a context that contradicts monist thinking, without the soul, a body could not…

philosophers like Descartes, empirical thinking was the source of human improvement. For a Romantic poet like Charles Baudelaire, awareness of the nature of humanity was of most importance. In Descartes Discourse on Method and Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poetry, it is clear that both men had differing views on the understanding of self. While Descartes felt the need to prove himself to society, Baudelaire attempted show his rebellion against traditional society. Descartes believed that…

René Descartes and John Locke, both seventeenth century rationalists, are regularly seen as two of the main early cutting edge logicians. Both Descartes and Locke endeavor to discover responses to the same inquiries in mysticism and epistemology; among these: What is information? Is there conviction in information? What parts do the psyche and body play in the securing of learning? Descartes and Locke don't give the same responses to these inquiries. In this paper I will consider the…

In the beginning of his First Meditation, Descartes explains how several opinions he had grown up believing and trusting to be true had been false opinions, “and that whatever [he] had since built on such shaky foundations could only be highly doubtful” (First Med. pg. 13, line 1-3). From that point onward, his goal was to discover one thing that is certain and unshakable (First Med. pg. 17, line 34-35). Half way through his thought process, he claims that “it is certain only that nothing is…