PHIL 202 Lecture 5: HMP 1.31 (L) Descartes, Fourth Meditation
4 May 2018
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History of Modern Philosophy
1.31.18 Lecture Notes – Descartes, Fourth Meditation
- Goal is to state his own infallibility
- . God an’t deeive
- . I an’t e deeived if I use faulties orretly
o Faculty of judgment – has both the element of the divine and the element of the
finite
- 3. I am deceived sometimes
- 4. What is the error?
- Understanding error will allow us to understand how to avoid – which is how Descartes
establishes his infallibility
- God cannot deceive because he is perfect
- D has a clear and distinct conception of a perfect being, a thought which is from God
(because of the causal adequacy principle)
- Problem of evil
o How could God have created the world with all this evil?
o Epistemological analogue to the problem of evil problem of error
- Final cause – purpose, that for the sake of which the thing is brought about
o Prior to Descartes, final causes were widely used in physics
o Benevolent purposes of God were used to explain physics
o As a result, physics became subordinate to theology
o Descartes is interested in giving a mechanical account of everything in the
universe
- Error is dependent on two candidate causes
o Faculty of understanding (enables us to perceive ideas in order to judge)
▪ Thus, cannot be the real source of error
o Faculty of the will (act of judgment)
▪ Descartes believes that the will is free because he experiences it
▪ We are not determined by any external force
- The opposite of the freedom of the will is indifference
- Free will is innate in us Descartes wrote this somewhere else
o Innate notions are implanted by God
- Later says that we cannot understand how God can have all this power and we have
freedom of the will out of our epistemic reach
- Source of error – when my will extends beyond my understanding
o When the will exercises its power about clear and distinct ideas, truth is
guaranteed
o The will goes beyond the clear and distinct ideas sometimes, which produces
truths and falsities
- When presented lear and distint ideas, I an’t help but make a judgment (because of
the natural light)
o A way to avoid error
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Document Summary
Goal is to state his own infallibility. I (cid:272)an"t (cid:271)e de(cid:272)eived if i use fa(cid:272)ulties (cid:272)orre(cid:272)tly: faculty of judgment has both the element of the divine and the element of the finite. Understanding error will allow us to understand how to avoid which is how descartes establishes his infallibility. God cannot deceive because he is perfect. D has a clear and distinct conception of a perfect being, a thought which is from god (because of the causal adequacy principle) Problem of evil: how could god have created the world with all this evil, epistemological analogue to the problem of evil problem of error. The opposite of the freedom of the will is indifference. Free will is innate in us descartes wrote this somewhere else. Later says that we cannot understand how god can have all this power and we have freedom of the will out of our epistemic reach.
