Philosophy 1020 Lecture 17: philosophy lecture 17 - Metaphysics and descartes.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: Philosophy 1020
• Professor: John Thorp

Document Summary

God exists: thinking substance exists even if we doubt thinking, we are still thinking. One thing we can be certain of, is a thinking substance. Recall: epistemology concerns the theory of knowledge. Argument 2: external things are material things. Analysis of truth: correspondence account, coherence account, pragmatic account. Two main senses (meanings) of existence: commonsensical sense of existence, everyday use of existence", ultimate sense of existence, metaphysician"s use of existence, ex: taste, red chair . even though we see them, they aren"t really real. Do natural numbers exist: note: these questions are asked in the ultimate sense of the word existence and not in the everyday sense of the word. General metaphysical question: what exists in the world, everything, what are the basic constituents of everything, descartes: substance dualism: everything is either, thinking substance (mind/soul): esscence = thinking, unintended, no parts b)material substance (bodies) esscence = thinking. Ideas from sensory experience are either voluntary or involuntary.