rene descartes meditations
Meditations is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is truly real. In these writings, heultimately hopes to achieve absolute certainty about the nature of everything includingGod, the physical world, and himself. It is only with a clear and distinct knowledge ofsuch things that he can then begin understand his true reality. Descartes starts by lookingat our usual sources for truth. Authority, which is churches, parents, and schools, he says,are not reliable sources for truth because time shows we all die, and that we areeventually proved wrong, much in the same way the accepted truths of science havechanged dramatically over the course of history. Also, he considers the generally exceptedview that our senses dependably report the absolute nature of reality. Simiar to authority,Descartes discards the senses as a source of truth because of the "Dream Argument" orthe belief that based on the senses there is no definite way of proving that you aredreaming or that you are awake. Therefore it is possible that everything we believe isfalse, making the senses an unreliable source. Upon establishing this, Descartes doubtsthe existence of a physical or external world. Despite that he has an idea of things in the
He then concludesthat he is not the cause of his external ideas. He finalizes that we can accept as accurate those parts of our external ideas, which areself-evident, or those that can be mathematically represented. Thereason these two ideologies seem to be conflicting is because they both providecompeting and different ideas about the true nature of reality. In the Sixth Meditation, the last section in ourtext, Descartes hopes to prove the existence of the external world and matter (physicalobjects located in space). Descartes states this belief in the statement, "I'm awarethat I'm aware. Consequently, God is not the cause of these external ideas because God ensures the truthof self-evident ideas. Religion offers that the goalof human life is acquisition of salvation and eternal life. Thus, if accuratelycomprehended, no conflict should arise between science and religion. To summarize, neither God nor Descartes is the cause of externalideas, therefore proving that matter exists. As a result, Descartesponders the possibility that he has no way of being completely positive about anything,even his existence. To insure theintegrity of his newly acquired understanding of reality, he uses the method of doubt. Despite the fact that he feels he isnot a body, he does believe he has properties, such as doubt, that make him a substance. Whereas matter is more connected toscience, buts doesn't negate the influence of God because God provided us with a system,mathematics, to better understand the physical world around us. Another point headdresses is mathematics. Hoping to discern the existence of anything else aside from himself, animmaterial substance, Descartes considers a variety of ideas he has within his mind andcontemplates whether he could have conceived them himself or not.
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Acceptance Essays
