Q3: What are the main differences between rationalism and empiricism as approaches to knowledge? Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each‚ using Descartes (Second Meditation) as the example of a rationalist‚ and Hume or Locke as the example of an empiricist. In your view which approach better explains the common-sense knowledge of the world that we take for granted? Common-sense knowledge is information we know and understand unproblematically. It could be that a spider has six legs‚ your
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The Search For Truth: A Comparison Of The Oncological Philosophies Of Rene Descartes‚ Lao tzu‚ al-Razi‚ and Lame Deer It seems that no matter the circumstances under which a culture and society develops its people instinctively develop a method‚ or a reason‚ for their existence. This aspect of human beings to long for a reason or purpose to life is distinct to human beings opposed to other living creatures of the earth. For thousands of years philosophers have argued and explored what the nature
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How successful are Descartes’ arguments for the real distinction of mind from body? Upon which problem would you put the most weight? Descartes says the mind is distinct from the body‚ or anything physical for that matter. He says‚ a thinking substance is nonphysical or spiritual in nature (mind)‚ and an extended substance is physical‚ but not capable of consciousness or thought (body). However‚ this very claim is also his biggest problem as his mind body interaction has many critics and to
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1. In Descartes’ First Meditation‚ why does he set about doubting all of his knowledge? What is he hoping to achieve? Descartes mentions that several years have passed since he first realized how numerous were the false opinions that he had once taken to be true. He notes that the subsequent opinions built were suspect to doubt because of this. He says that he has gained his knowledge through the senses or through the senses. The senses are sometimes deceptive and it is prudent not to trust that
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IS DESCARTES ’ EVIL DEMON THOUGHT EXPERIMENT A STRONGER ARGUMENT FOR GLOBAL SCEPTICISM THAN HIS DREAMING ARGUMENT? IF YES‚ EXPLAIN WHY; IF NO‚ EXPLAIN WHY NOT. Descartes defined global skepticism as all of our experiences‚ thoughts and everything we know to be true as dubious and deceptive. Therefore we are constantly being deceived and what we perceive to be true may not be true at all. In this essay I will attempt to show how Descartes ’s dreaming argument and evil demon argument justifies global
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Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was not only a philosopher but also a mathematician and scientist. As a philosopher‚ he used skepticism as a means of finding the truth of all. His idea was to doubt everything‚ and in doubting everything‚ anything that couldn’t be doubted was definite. "I will doubt everything that can possibly be doubted‚ he reasons‚ and if anything is left‚ then it will be absolutely certain." (Moore/Bruder 93) This‚ Descartes felt was the only way to obtain truth and knowledge. This
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in the third part of his „Ethics“ Spinoza follows in his list of definitions of affects to a great extent the one of passions given by Descartes in his “Passions de l’Ame” (apart from divergent evaluations of some of the passions1‚ like Spinoza´s refusal to include admiratio among them). It also appears that both of them are building a taxonomy of passions that introduces some kind of hierarchical order among these. We find both in Descartes as well as in Spinoza a set of passions2 out or by means
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have formed their own theories of God‚ existence and the material world. Through these individual theories I will show how each fits into the category of either Rationalist or Imperialist. The Plutonian philosophers to be discussed will include Descartes‚ Spinoza‚ and Leibniz. And the Aristotelian philosophers will include Locke‚ Berkeley and Hume. Plato‚ a philosopher of the 17th century‚ contended that "Opinion at its best is a matter of probability‚ and knowledge at its least is entirely sure (Lamprecht
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impressions play a part in our experiences in the mind and the body. Locke’s objection was more understanding that Humes’s because he made more points on the subject‚ he had more information on the topic and he also made more since of the subject. Descartes objection seemed to be based on the imagery of god‚ Humes objection was us using more of an impression than us using both our body and
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Rationalists and where did they come from? Rene Descartes‚ Baruch Spinoza‚ Gottfried Leibniz. Descartes was French and from the Dutch Republic. Spinoza was Jewish-Dutch‚ from Amsterdam. As for Leibniz‚ is German and was born in Leipzig‚ Saxony. 5. Peter Unger uses a hypothetical situation in his essay “A Defense of Skepticism.” That is similar to the one used by Descartes. Briefly state the situation and explain how Unger’s is slightly different then Descartes. Unger had an aim in his essay to argue
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