PHL 708 Chapter 1-5: Descartes Meditations (First to Fifth)
10 Oct 2018
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First meditation - what can be called into doubt (pgs. What we perceive as true usually comes from our senses. However, there are some things that we know from our sense that cannot be doubted. Dreaming while asleep; when we are asleep, we don"t know that we are. The things we dream seem to be reality in the moment. The things we see in our dreams are drawn upon from real life experiences. While we can doubt the composed things and images, we cannot doubt the universal parts from which they are constructed like shape, size, etc. We can doubt studies on composite things such as medicine, astronomy, physics, etc. but we cannot doubt studies based on simple things like arithmetic and geometry. Sets up the foundation of modern skepticism. Tries to doubt what aristotelian philosophers believed: that knowledge comes from the senses. Sets up an argument that aristotelians would agree with, then counters it to disprove it.
