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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Meditation‚ Descartes gives us the Evil Demon Hypothesis which serves to give him reason to doubt the existence of everything he perceives and believes. He describes a ‘malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning’ that has the sole purpose of deceiving Descartes (Descartes‚ 2010: 17). I will argue that his hypothesis has proven to be a strong one because only the cogito provides a way for us to frustrate or trick the evil demon. The Evil Demon Hypothesis is an important component of the Method of Doubt
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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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Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (IV) None of the proposed philosophical theories is exact‚ not even a combination of two or more theories (Sayre‚ 2011). However‚ Descartes has unique way of metaphysical argument concerning existence of God. Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (Part IV) ends surprisingly with a claim of God’s existence‚ which can be deduced from the interrelationship between mind‚ soul and our existence. Descartes began the fourth section by discussing about himself. The reading
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Doubt Paper One of the strongest feelings many face is doubt‚ uncertainty. There is vulnerability people associate with having doubts. Doubt: a parable is a play that shows the effects of this feeling on a range of people at different places in their lives. When uncertain about the truth‚ they become vulnerable‚ leaving their faith shaken. Doubt: a parable illustrates how doubt can completely corrupt all persons causing them to overcompensate for that vulnerability. Despite the background of doubt
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Pascal vs Descartes Paper Pascal’s argument is fallible because he reaches the conclusion that we should “wager” God’s existence‚ rather than coming up with “proof” by using deductive reasoning like Descartes provides in his argument. These early 17th century philosophers both provided writings defending the validity of the Christian religion and of God’s existence. After the Protestant Reformation of 1517‚ the Catholic Church’s sanctity was questioned. Different religions sprouted across Europe
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Cartesian Method A.) Cartesian doubt Cartesian doubt is a form of methodological skepticism associated with the writings and methodology of René Descartes. Cartesian doubt is also known as Cartesian skepticism‚ methodic doubt‚ methodological skepticism‚ or hyperbolic doubt. Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one’s beliefs‚ which has become a characteristic method in philosophy. This method of doubt was largely popularized in Western philosophy
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Sarah Gabr 900-08-9073 Final Essay In the First Meditation‚ Descartes presents his philosophical project‚ and he claims that‚ in order to complete this project‚ he needs to put into questions the truth of all his beliefs. Descartes shows that we can doubt of the truth of all our beliefs by two main arguments‚ the Dream Argument and the Evil Genius argument. In the Dream Argument‚ Descartes discusses the senses and how it can deceive. Descartes then mentions that when he is dreaming he can also sense
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Comparison of Descartes and Locke Philosophy on Innate Ideas Philosophers over the years have written and evaluated numerous topics in philosophy. Occasionally‚ these scholars concede to their ideas and sometimes disagree with each other’s thought. Two scholars had distinctive ideas about where innate ideas originate from and how we get these sorts of ideas. Notably‚ these two philosophers who had an opposing argument on where innate ideas originated from were Rene Descartes and John Locke. Descartes based
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In this paper‚ I will argue Descartes’ argument‚ that it is possible to gain knowledge‚ is flawed and incorrect. First‚ I will set out Descartes’ premise for believing knowledge is possible. Next‚ I will reintroduce his ideas in order to point out flaws and show the weakness of his position. Then‚ I will provide a counter to my assertions. Finally‚ I will give my reasons for supporting the notion that it is not possible to gain knowledge. Descartes’ Argument Descartes’ argument for knowledge is based
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