PHILO-120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Empirical Evidence, Dream Argument, Cogito Ergo Sum
24 Aug 2020
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Rene descartes, the prominent mathematician and philosopher, was a rationalist concerned with discovering something that he could hold as true beyond any doubt. He concluded that no one could doubt that a human is a thinking being, that a thinking thing exists, that god exists, and that the world exists. All of this, he claimed, could be established by reason alone. Sees sense experience as an unreliable source of knowledge and tried to give all our knowledge a foundation as firm as that which supports unshakeable mathematical truths. Offers the dream and evil genius arguments. His way out of skepticism: i think, therefore i am . Cogito ergo sum: descartes" argument against skepticism: i can persuade myself of something; i can have thoughts, if i can persuade myself of something, if i can have thoughts, i must exist. Even an evil genius cannot rob me of this knowledge: i think; therefore, i am .
