PHI 1103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pyrrhonism, Cartesian Coordinate System, Academic Skepticism
Document Summary
The possibility of knowledge (how do we acquire knowledge?) Often described as the father of modern philosophy. Modern philosophy is distinguished by its focus on reason, rather than religion or tradition, as the primary mechanism for understanding the world. Descartes is credited with the invention of analytic geometry, and is the namesake of the cartesian coordinate system. Somehow greeks began to think that they must explain the world by relying on reason rather than religion, myth or tradition. We have different schools of philosophy in ancient greece. Telescope showed that other planets are made of almost the same material. Four moon orbits jupiter. (not the earth, which undermines. The bible never talked about the new world. Galileo observed that when objects roll down the hill, he discovers that they accelerate at the same rate. Descartes is a rationalist (knowledge is possible).