PHLB35H3 Lecture : Rationalism Descartes Med 1 & 2
Document Summary
Descartes begins the discourse by setting up a problem: nothing in philosophy seems certain. His solution is to start over from scratch and reconstruct philosophical knowledge by himself. Here we see rules that will shape the meditations: only accept what is known so clearly and distinctly it can"t be doubted, start with simple truths and build to the more complex by certain steps/inferences. Overall plan of the meditations: subject all knowledge to radical doubt, to show the need for a new foundation for knowledge, provide a new foundation for knowledge, re-establish knowledge on this foundation. Descartes motivates the project of the meditations by appealing to a familiar point: everything. Descartes attempts to cast doubt on all our knowledge of the world by considering a series of sceptical hypotheses (28): i am subject to perceptual illusion, i am dreaming, i am being deceived by an omnipotent being.
