Philosophy and Literature 253 Midterm Exam October 7 2012 “Oh‚ Jupiter‚ a robot Descartes!” Asimov’s short story “Reasons” in I‚ Robot is the fictional account of a robots creation of his own path of reasoning. Much like Descartes‚ the Robot‚ Cutie‚ is curious about the truth of his existence and plans to find the answers out for himself. Cutie is a self-aware‚ reasoning robot on a station in space in the year 2015‚ and all he knows are the things in his immediate surrounding‚ which isn’t much
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Descartes method of doubt is his personal quest for certainty in knowledge‚ a system that allows us to find a way to be assured that what we feel we “know” is not just a figment of his imagination but an infallible truth. The motivation for his method of doubts begins as a question of the possibility that all his thoughts could be false on the basis that he has had many false beliefs before and could possibly have formed more false beliefs with a fabricated base‚ and that in order to have stable
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Descartes proves that God exists in his third meditation. He proves that God exists because he wants to be certain about things outside of himself. But‚ he cannot be certain of these things if he is ignorant about the existence of God. This is because if a supreme God exists‚ he could cause Descartes to be mistaken in the one avenue to certainty that he has. This avenue is known as clear and distinct perception‚ and‚ according to Descartes‚ it is what is necessary to be certain about a thing. However
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Running head: DESCARTES INFLUENCE ON PSYCHOLOGY Descartes Influence on Psychology DESCARTES INFLUENCE ON PSYCHOLOGY René Descartes was a famous French mathematician‚ scientist‚ and philosopher throughout the mid 1600’s. He is often regarded as the father of modern philosophy; however‚ his highly influential ideas have also impacted many other scientific fields‚ including the world of psychology. Descartes contributions in philosophy and biology have had a significant influence on modern
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2010 Descartes and Hume: Piece of Wax In Descartes’ “Meditation II‚” he begins his look into sensory perceptions with a very in-depth look into a plain piece of wax. He explains that there is a very distinct piece of wax‚ perhaps from a fresh honeycomb. All the physical attributes of this wax can be observed; feel‚ temperature‚ color‚ taste‚ smell‚ odor; these are the things we can tell through our senses. He then melts away the wax‚ and the things our senses had perceived are no longer there
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Descartes is the pioneer of modern philosophy. His "I think‚ therefore I am" is the first principle and proposition of his philosophical system. His thoughts occupied an extremely important position in the whole history of philosophy. At first‚ Descartes wrote in Meditation‚ “The first such belief was that I had a face‚ hands‚ arms and the whole structure of bodily parts that corpses also have—I call it the body‚” which gives his first understanding to “I”‚ then he continues says‚ “The next belief
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sources was the first meditation of the French philosopher Rene Descartes. In this movie‚ what most people perceive as reality is no more real than a dream. This dream is created by a powerful being bent on deceiving humanity‚ but there are some members of humanity who choose to let themselves be deceived. Neo experiences the same doubt about reality as Descartes when he talks about not being sure if he is awake or still dreaming. Descartes points out that there are no certain markings between the dream
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In Descartes Meditation I‚ he casts doubt as to whether or not we are dreaming. He first uses modus tollens to cast doubt to our senses. He then he uses redictio ad absurdum to show that even if we are dreaming‚ there are some things that are still real. Descartes begins with establishing the key idea of laying a strong foundation for his ideas. He acknowledges that he has preconceived ideas about the world in which he can doubt their truth. He sees this collection of ideas as a pyramid‚ where
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Question: "Descartes ’ dualist theory of Mind and Body has difficulty explaining how the two interact. What is the problem? Explain and evaluate Descartes ’ attempts to overcome it." Introduction René Descartes (1596-1650) is known as the "Founder of Modern Philosophy" and the "Cartesian Dualism" although he was also an outstanding mathematician and scientist for his time. Influenced by notable Western philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle‚ who maintained that man ’s intelligence could not
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way we live our life or are they even dreams? What would Rene Descartes say about dreams? Why do we dream‚ and what is the significance of dreaming? On our journey to understand a little more about Rene Descartes and what he would say about dreams happening plus their significance to our life we will be going through the Dream Argument as well as some of its criticism‚ imagination‚ and the Cartesian questions about dreams. Descartes was a part of the dream argument. The Dream Argument was “proof”
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