PHIL 111 Lecture Notes - Direct And Indirect Realism, Ternary Relation, Cartesian Doubt

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 111
• Professor: Jon Miller

Document Summary

Descartes is convinced of the need for certain knowledge. In the meditations, he seeks to discover it. First, he examines his existing beliefs or opinions. Rather than examine his beliefs one by one, descartes places them into groups. If the group as a whole is subject to doubt, then each individual member must be too. All will be cast aside as incompatible with his quest for certainty. He presented a battery of arguments, each of which is intended to show that a whole group of beliefs is possibly false. He concludes by supposing that an evil demon has misled him on all his beliefs. The doubt of meditation one has been called hyperbolic doubt . This means it is extreme and not intended to be realistic. In particular, it is to be used for theoretical purposes only. Throughout meditation two, descartes probes the extent of his knowledge, even while he is subject to radical doubt.