SOC SCI H1G Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Foundationalism, Scientific Revolution, Empirical Evidence

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOC SCI H1G
• Professor: S T A N F O R D, P.B A R R E T T, J.

Document Summary

Goal was to discover real knowledge - absolutely certain. Only accept conclusions that are simple and absolutely certain. It needs to be simple so you can clearly distinguish the truth in it. Descartes imagined that an evil demon was messing with the way his mind worked. Build up knowledge carefully from such certainties. I"m thinking, therefore i exist - an observation. Not certain of the existence of his body, just certain of his existence as a thinking being. Even if he is trying to doubt his existence, something is still doing the doubting - him. In order to be thinking you have to exist. The fact that he has this idea guarantees that there"s something in the world to correspond to that idea. If the idea of god exists then he must exist in the world as well. * everything i clearly and distinctly perceive to be true is true.