HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Nicolaus Copernicus, Tabula Rasa, Cogito Ergo Sum
Document Summary
Francis bacon (1561-1626) used empirical and reason to deduce what he believed as rational and true. Deductive scientific method assumed that principles were first assumed to be true. Ontological argument for the existence of god: god is an all-perfect being who exists, it is better to exist than not to exist, therefore, god exists. People were encouraged under ren descartes (1596-1650) to look at only verifiable facts, provable by mathematical reason only. Francis bacon (1561-1626) was a politician and as such looked at the world from a different perspective than the mathematician-philosopher descartes. Descartes believed that nothing could be accepted as true unless empirically proven to be so. Descartes addresses the conundrum of the relationship between objective and subjective truth. Interior versus exterior existences and universes cogito ergo sum (i think therefore i am) Descartes made a number of contributions to western understanding: 1637 discourses sur les m thodes.
