PHL 708 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Lame
12 Jan 2017
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Descartes adds to his stock of knowledge: A principle for establishing further knowledge (the clear and distinct perception rule) Perceiving: entertaining an idea or conception (it is not sense perception) For any proposition p, if i perceive p clearly and distinctly, p is true. Candidates for c&d perception: something very simple and easy in the areas of arithmetic or geometry, for example that two plus three make five (at 36) If there is a genius that"s all powerful, even if we are as certain as we can possibly be, we may still be wrong. So c&d rule works only if we know god exists and is not a deceiver. Proof of god"s existence: objection - implausible, my idea has a certain context, i can only have that idea that only answers to that = The idea of god is so special, i can only have it if god caused it. Substance: a thing that exists independently of other things.
