PHIL 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Foundationalism, Empirical Evidence, Ancient Philosophy
29 Apr 2016
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Descartes 1596-1650: reacting to the ancients thought of as father of modern philosophy . Very well-learned in medieval and ancient philosophy. Descartes" impact: we need to focus on the things on which we can mathematically model; once we do that, it will change ev- erything. Cartesian plane and how it was applied to physics. Descartes sees the above contributions as connected to one another; philosophy and science were not separate things. What is the doubt for: to put science on the most secure foundation possible. Descartes says that once in our lives we should . Doubt everything as far as possible, back to your own existence. In the discourse of the method; he was taught all of these things, and then realized that some of the things he was taught were wrong. Purpose is to maximize chances of avoiding error. Get rid of everything that isn"t absolutely certain, then rebuild our beliefs based on what is absolutely certain.
