"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth". Genesis 1:1 That is how the Bible starts. But what or who is this God mentioned in this verse? Does God exist? Is the universe the product of a fortuitous event or it was created by a "superior being"? These questions and many others have been asked by men‚ thinkers and philosophers for thousands of years and to try to answer these questions we need to begin by defining God. It is important to mention that‚ by trying to define God‚ we are
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Rene Descartes and God’s Existence Rene Descartes was a French philosopher‚ mathematician and a scientist in the seventeenth century. As a man of science‚ Descartes wanted to make discoveries in science as factual as mathematics. With Descartes’s faith‚ he did not eliminate God from philosophy. Descartes‚ “The Father of Modern Philosophy”‚ was a Catholic who wrote the Meditations on First Philosophy. “The Meditations is characterized by Descartes’s use of methodic doubt‚ a systematic procedure
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"I think‚ therefore I am" ii. Can’t reasonably doubt whether I am thinking; when I doubt‚ I am thinking iii. "I exist" 1) I wonder whether I exist iv. What am I? 1) "Sum res cogitans"; I am thinking substance (stuff/thing) v. I can’t be wrong about what I am thinking 1) Thinking: perceiving‚ imagining‚ willing‚ abstract intellect (math) vi. "I see a table" 1) Sense perception (image in your head) to real table 2) "I seem to see a table" a) An incorrigible
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your very own thoughts. This paper will explore the depths of Descartes argument over deception and the truth that is certain in the human mind and body‚ along with the existence of a perfect being and of an evil genius. In Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy‚ he doubts everything he possibly knows to be true in this world. We rely entirely on our senses to perceive the world‚ therefore we believe them fully. But to Descartes our senses cannot be trusted entirely‚ he explains that our senses
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The theme of these readings was human sexuality‚ including intersexuals and transgenders. In Dueling Dualisms‚ Anne Fausto-Sterling talks about human sexuality and sexual difference and how choosing which criteria to use in determining sex are social decisions for which scientists can offer no absolute guidelines. Throughout the text she explains how biology and other human sciences became to optimize and standardize the human’s function and how two kinds of processes‚ nature and nurture‚ can help
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Reflex acts were one of the first human reactions to being studied. Descartes was the first beginning a study model of reflex acts‚ this to be able to demonstrate that the body worked like any other machine. Another scientist in studying this phenomenon‚ Robert Whytt. He was a Scottish physicist and physicist. He inclined his research around action-reflex‚ differentiating voluntary and involuntary movements. Describing the pupil reflex to light (reflecting Whytt)‚ he further proposed that the arches
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In the Sixth Meditation‚ Descartes makes a point that there is a distinction between mind and body. It is in Meditation Two when Descartes believes he has shown the mind to be better known than the body. In Meditation Six‚ however‚ he goes on to claim that‚ as he knows his mind and knows clearly and distinctly that its essence consists purely of thought. Also‚ that bodies’ essences consist purely of extension‚ and that he can conceive of his mind and body as existing separately. By the power of
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Descartes’ Cogito argument and defective nature doubt are mutually damaging to each other’s respective claims. Defective nature dismisses logic yet Cogito uses it‚ by doing so Descartes contradicts himself‚ falling trap to his own scrutiny. Ruling out his own perception‚ how can Descartes make plausible claims when he doubts his very ability to do so? The reasoning behind Descartes’ doubtfulness is that‚ in essence‚ he wants to know what he can and cannot doubt. If Descartes knows what is doubtable
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Socrates and Descartes on Dualism Dualism means the complete separation of the mental world and the physical world. In philosophy‚ it is the theory that the universe is explicable only as a whole composed of two distinct and mutually exclusive factors: the mind and the body. Socrates and Plato are called dualists because they think that mind and body are separate and distinct substances. Mind is conscious and non-spatial and body is spatial but not conscious. While separate‚ these two substances
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In his Fourth Meditation‚ Descartes approaches the problem of human mistakes and ultimately reconciles this with the existence of a non-deceiving God. He takes issue with the notion of God‚ being perfect‚ creating in him an imperfection – that is‚ the capacity to make mistakes. Mistakes‚ according to Descartes‚ arise when we are mistaken or deceived about a truth. But God is not a deceiver; and given that God has given humans the ability to judge‚ it doesn’t follow that he should give us the ability
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