PHIL 1204 Lecture 6: Meditations on First Philosophy
31 Jan 2018
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He wanted to bring what he knew about math and science and apply his knowledge to a philosophical context. He wanted to bring a (cid:498)method(cid:499) to philosophy, he was disgusted by philosophy. Descartes tried to propose a method because he felt is was absolutely necessary. Envisioned the whole process while sitting by a fire in november, 1619 (cid:498)the general demolition of my opinions. (cid:499) Radical doubt: withhold assent from any of his beliefs that can be doubted. Architectural metaphor, beliefs have a kind of structure to them and depend on other beliefs which depend on further beliefs: ex. A tower, the stones on the top depend on the stones below that and those stones below those, etc. Four methods of doubt: my senses can mislead me, i might be crazy, i might be dreaming, an evil genius might be fooling me (cid:498)the matrix(cid:499) See if anything survives the process: descartes leaves us asking.
