MDSB02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Method, Incorporeality, Michel De Montaigne
Document Summary
1650: french philosopher, father of modern science - scientific method, focus on direct observation, mechanistic worldview. Form that organizes living things = psyche (soul) Animals sensitive psyche (above + locomotion and sensitive functions) Humans intellective psyche (above + intellective functions such as rationality) The form of a living thing is identical to its life functions. Without matter, there is no form; without form, there is no life function: descartes: I know that i exist because i can think. Thinking offers the ability to directly observe and thus engage the world. Man: sensations of hunger, thirst, pain, pleasure, anger, fear, and so on are due to the material and mechanical functioning of the body, bodily sensations transmitted via nerves to the brain, mechanistic bodies break down and stop functioning. Mind: incorporeal and separate from the body, ego cogito, being because i think , soul, mind senses, imagines, remembers, doubts, thinks abstractly, and wills freely.
