PHI 3170 Lecture Notes - Omnibenevolence, Foundationalism, Bertrand Russell
Document Summary
Descartes ii beyond doubt: the reconstruction of knowledge. Descartes" three stages of doubt: perception (local), dream (general), demon (general. I should suspend all information that i perceive through my sense because they"re deceived me before, and therefore, are dubitable. If i have an idea of perfection, it must exist. That existence is god: he"s proved his existence, he"s proved god"s existence, what about my beliefs, passivity of ideas: my ideas are caused by sensations. M4 enjoins: to restrict assent to clear and distinct" propositions (implying infallible standard) but can empirical knowledge be infallible: beliefs in themselves do not constitute knowledge, problem 2: cartesian circle and arnauld"s detective colombo objection: I have one further worry, namely how the author avoids reasoning in a circle when he says that we are sure that what we clearly and distinctly perceive is true only because. But we can be sure that god exists only because we clearly and distinctly perceive this.