Rene Descartes and a discription Essay

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was non moreover a philosopher but also a mathematician and scientist. As a philosopher, he used skepticism as a substance of chance oning the truth of altogether. His sentiment was to discredit every thing, and in doubting everything, anything that couldnt be doubted was definite. I will doubt everything that tail possibly be doubted, he movements, and if anything is left, then it will be absolutely certain. (Moore/Bruder 93) This, Descartes felt was the entirely way to obtain truth and knowledge.This method was to take away each the confidence in everything that was taught to us, what we sense and believe, and the things we take as being obvious. To sincerely determine if we know anything is for certain we essential doubt it all cut all we knew about it before. So everything we currently believe is open to word and preserve be questioned. Descartes Method of Doubt incorporated two well-known systems, a ambitiousness conjecture and the evil fanatic conjecture. What the dream conjecture is, is the notion that everything that is reality might just be a dream.Adding to the dream conjecture, is the evil demon conjecture. This evil demon conjecture, in essence, is the concept that if this all reality, is just a dream, then perhaps there is an evil demon that is deceiving our minds with these false images of reality. So, we merchantmant assume that our bodies or that anything of our experience hold outs and can be trusted to be true. For everything we know could be just a dream and not real at all and controlled by a deceiver. No, Descartes was not out of his mind. He was aw are that these two conjecture he composed sounded far-fetched.However, that was the whole point. Descartes was on a quest to find foregone conclusion in an any-case-possibility. What Descartes came up with after going through and doubting everything was the cogito, ergo sum or I think, therefore I am. What this meant was if you are thinking, yo u are existing. The self that doubts its own organism mustiness surely exist to be able to doubt in the first place. (Moore/Bruder 93) Subsequently, this was the only true thing we can know to be real. We know that we exist at least in a form of a mind.So we can doubt our physical being but not our mental existence because you can think. To take this a step further he developed the put down and distinct test. The realise and distinct test was a test to find out what was true with clarity and distinctness. Meaning, anything that is finish off and distinct is true. Using this clear and distinct test, Descartes came to the conclusion that divinity, in fact, exists. Descartes believed he viewed divinity clearly and distinctively, and further, god would not let an evil demon toy with his mind, if such a thing did exist.Descartes also thought that there were two distinct substances beyond matinee idol, and these two substances were material substance and mind substance. The mat erial substance was all that exists and occupies space and the mind substance is that of thought. Because a substance, according to Descartes, requires nothing opposite than itself to exist, it follows that mind and matter are totally independent of each other. (Moore/Bruder 95) The return to these two substances being independent of each other is called parallelism.The mind, they argued, does not sincerely cause the body to move. When I will that my hand should move, my act of unbidden only appears to cause my hand to move. (Moore/Bruder 97)Descartes felt that graven image was the one who was complicated in the mental things that happened and the sequence of material actions. He believed divinity was the reason those two things happened to happen together. This idea was called occasionalism. Descartes was first to make this systematic number of the mind and body relationship, and also the souls contact with the body. (Rorty).Descartes basically through everything, approa ched all metaphysical issues by going back and hard to pick apart everything about the basic things. Descartes tried to discover metaphysical truth about what is through epistemological inquiry about what can be know. (Moore/Bruder 97) The profit of Descartes ideas is that in the dismissal of everything makes you question and look at elements that may be overlooked because it is human to draw on experience. So, to clear oneself of all former beliefs leaves everything wide open for exploration and opens up a wider scope.The problem I find in his distinct and clear system is Descartes proof of gods existence. In proving the existence of perfection he uses pecker reasoning. This circular reasoning is called the Cartesian Circle. The Cartesian Circle is the circular reasoning that, on one hand, we can only know that God exists because we clearly and distinctively perceive it, and on the other hand, we can only know that our clear and distinct perceptions are true because God exits . (Loeb 200-235) This oddball of reasoning doesnt make any concrete conclusions on the existence of God.It just keeps going around in a circle, one accountability after the other. Descartes believe that only his perceptions could be deceived not his mind. So since God was good and perfect, he wouldnt allow him to be deceived, therefore God exists. To explain his ideas on the existence of God, Descartes states that if one can have an idea of a perfect being, which is God, then a perfect being must exist if we can think it in our minds. All of this to me, doesnt surface any solid proof. Even though you can think something in your mind, doesnt mean it must exits.I can think tons of things in my mind personally, that doesnt necessary mean that somewhere, maybe not in the physical initiation I experience, truly exists. Also, if God did exists, and if God is perfect, as Descartes claims, then why does Atheism and such religious beliefs exist? Wouldnt perfection be if God could exist and not be questionable? Because what Descartes believes is all that we can perceive clearly and distinctively exists, and he had not given any way that explains how you can perceive God clearly and distinctively, other than stating he can perceive in his mind.Also, other thing that is a problem in Descartes method is his goal of proving the existence of the outside world was not valid by any unquestionable means. There is no proof that any physical object exists digression from a near universal belief that the external world exists. What Descartes says, is that since God makes us believe that there is an external world, then there must be one. However, there are lots of mistakes in his proof of God and it isnt truly valid. So, therefore we cannot say anything in this external world does exist or either God, based on the knowledge I have obtained on the subject matter on Descartes.From what I have read on Descartes and his philosophical ideas, there are many holes and things to ar gued as Im sure is in most theories. Nonetheless, even though his ideas arent entirely credible to myself, I feel that his contributions to the field of philosophy are eminent. Descartes had brought lots of old questions of past philosophers and tried to rationalize them, he failed in my opinion to bugger off up with any competent answers for what he was trying to prove. However, he did prompt other philosophers in his progression to come up later with some better answers to some of these ideas.