PHIL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Cartesian Doubt, Dream Argument, Omnipotence
10 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Rene descartes has been named the father of modern philosophy. Descartes proposes to systematically follow a process of doubt. The doubt is not simply a common-sense one, as when i doubt whether black cats are bad luck. Instead, his doubting process is a philosophical one: the issue is whether a class of knowledge can be in anyway doubted. The goal: to arrive at knowledge which is beyond any possible doubt, that is, absolutely certain knowledge. Descartes does not intend to doubt the truth of every specific judgment - an impossible task - but to undermine, wherever possible, the foundations of one"s view. Descartes can do this by discussing broad classes of supposed knowledge, such as sensory knowledge or mathematical knowledge. The main/first class of knowledge he brings under suspicion is sensory knowledge. To be noted here that descartes, unlike plato, finds sensory knowledge important, as it makes for the biggest chunk of knowledge we have.
