True Knowledge – Descartes vs. Plato Many philosophers have tried to figure out what exactly true knowledge is. For years they have been asking questions and looking deep into the mind to better understand the methods needed to get to true knowledge. If we go back to some of the earliest philosophers we meet Plato in Greece. Plato tried to take on the question himself in a fictional conversation he wrote up between Socrates and Meno‚ and in which we see some insight to what he believes it is
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René Descartes was a very renowned French philosopher and mathematician. One of his most famous works is his book Meditations on First Philosophy. In this book Descartes asks and answers one simple question; does God exist? As one reads through Descartes meditations‚ they are presented with multiple proofs as Descartes attempts to prove that god exists. One of the premises of Descartes’ proofs is that “there must be as much formal reality in the cause of an idea as there is objective reality in the
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“God is the only substance that can exist or be conceived.” Spinoza’s criticism of Descartes’ substance dualism By: Jawad Samimi 01/04/2012 Substance dualism is often called ‘Cartesian dualism" and is the assumption that mind and body are really distinct substances. Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) was the first early modern philosopher to hold that a thinking-thing is entirely different form an extended thing and mind can exist without the body. Cartesian dualism‚ which started the famous mind-body
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For Descartes‚ you cannot be sure of one’s existence or its reality so first you must doubt it. But as we see through his work Meditations on First Philosophy‚ we are presented by his loosening grip on his own sanity since he had continued to doubt and never accepting to believe in other realities but only is certain of his own existence. Descartes gave the awareness that to doubt is to know and to know is to doubt. He had known that he exists because he can think‚ and he cannot doubt that he can
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Throughout time both philosophers’ theories have ignited arguments when it comes to the conception of “substance.” Although both were around about the same time period‚ one heavily juxtaposed the other and criticized severely. At the end of the day both philosophers had an entire and total different idea of what substance was. To begin with‚ Descartes‚ divided the world into two kinds of substances. He divided it by the “res cogitas” and “res extensa‚” which translates into “thinking substance‚
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Descartes: Proofs of God/Deception and Error Instructions: First: Analyze and evaluate the two proofs of God’s existence. How are they different? Is one more convincing than the other? Why did Descartes think he needed two proofs? Do they do different work for him? And secondly: Does Descartes give a satisfactory account of human error‚ given a perfect and divine creator? Are Descartes’ arguments convincing‚ or does it still seem unnecessary and less than perfect that God created us with
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were all those I had subsequently built upon them." (pp.1) The First Meditation opens with Renee Descartes reflecting on all the things that he has been mistaken about‚ and all his beliefs that were built on those false ones. As a result‚ he somehow feels the need to reexamine everything he has believed in the past‚ and has set aside some time in front of the fireplace to do it. Renee Descartes claims him self to be "The Meditator" and decides that in order to determine truth from falsity he should
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INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION PROJECT DUE: 3.35.2012 Topic: Dreams Attention Getter: It’s midnight and your car broke down right outside of town. Your cell phone is out of range and you have to get home. You grab a flashlight from the trunk and decide to walk to the nearest gas station just a couple miles down the road. There is a very dense nightshade ahead and with every step you seem to get further and further into the eerie darkness. The flashlight starts to go dim and you remember the extra
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The mind-body debate works to answer the following question: What is the bond between the mind and body? Descartes claims: “the fact that I can vividly and clearly think of one thing apart from another assures me that the two things are distinct from one another - that is‚ that they are two.” This notion of the mind and body claims humans to have both physical properties (the body and brain) and mental properties (the mind). The physical properties being: sensation‚ reproduction‚ movement‚ etc.
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no way aims to prove that God exists. Unlike Descartes‚ who tries to prove God’s existence through the idea of God himself Pascal does not think such a proof can succeed. Pascal does a good job in his argument because he takes both sides into account and comes to a reasonable conclusion using mathematics. Overall‚ Pascal’s wager is preferable to Descartes’ meditations because they contain many errors and do not appeal to people outside of Descartes’ own mind or beliefs. Pascal focuses on the question:
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