PHL 708 Study Guide - Comprehensive Midterm Guide: René Descartes, Lucid Dream, Dream Argument
5 Oct 2016
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Descartes doesn"t want us to use skepticism randomly but to support each stage of doubt like he did. For example, descartes rejects the possibility that he might be mad, since that would undercut the rationality that motivates his doubt: descartes isn"t trying to show us that we don"t know anything. Even if you"re lucid dreaming, there"s no telling if you"ll wake into another dream. A set of statements one of which (the conclusion) is supported by the remaining statements (premises). An argument tells you why you should believe something. A conclusion is what the speaker wants you to accept or believe. If you believe the premises, you are forced to believe the conclusion (assuming you"re rational). People of the 21st century find these four philosophers less foreign than antiquity. These four philosophers exemplified and shaped a distinctly modern outlook. By modern we mean to say arguments which are familiar or make sense to us today in 2016.
