Descartes Meditations Essay -- essays research papers

Meditations is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is truly real. In these writings, heultimately hopes to attain tyrannical certainty about the nature of everything includingGod, the material world, and himself. It is moreover with a clear and distinct knowledge ofsuch things that he can then begin understand his align reality. Descartes starts by lookat our usual sources for righteousness. Authority, which is churches, parents, and schools, he says,are not reliable sources for truth because time shows we all die, and that we areeventually proved wrong, much in the same way the accepted truths of science causechanged dramatically everyplace the course of history. Also, he considers the generally exceptedview that our senses dependably report the absolute nature of reality. Simiar to authority,Descartes discards the senses as a source of truth because of the Dream cable orthe belief that based on the senses there is no distinct way of proving that you aredreaming or that you are awake. Therefore it is realizable that everything we believe isfalse, making the senses an unreliable source. Upon establishing this, Descartes uncertainnesssthe existence of a physical or external world. Despite that he has an idea of things in theworld, he has no way of knowing if they exist past his own sound judgment. Another evidence headdresses is mathematics. He soon realizes maths truth isnt completely reliable becauseof the Demon Hypothesis, which acknowledges the possibility of an all virile beingthat is deceiving him about everything, including mathematics. As a result, Descartesponders the possibility that he has no way of being completely positive about anything,even his existence. It is only after some deliberation that he decides that it is impossibleto be wrong about everything because he has doubt, and to posses doubt, there must bea doubter. Hence, he doubts, therefore he exists. With the assurance of his existence, he ispresented with the deeper que stion of what he, himself, actually is. Descartes knows thathe is not just a body based on his doubt of the senses. Despite the fact that he feels he isnot a body, he does believe he has properties, such as doubt, that make him a substance.From this he concludes that his is an immaterial substance and that his essential propertyis self-consciousness because you can have no real proof of yourself except through yourown... ...man life is acquisition of salvation and eternal life. Conversely, what science tells usis that the world is completely settled or all just a course of random evolution.Descartes feels that the two, foreland and matter, are in completely different arenas, both ofwhich were created by God. The mind deals chiefly with freedom, and personalresponsibility, which lies in the field of religion. Whereas matter is more affiliated toscience, buts doesnt negate the influence of God because God provided us with a system,mathematics, to founder understand the physical world around us. Thus, if accuratelycomprehended, no dispute should arise between science and religion. Descartes focus inMeditations is absolute certainty. To achieve this he first must strike all that he has summonto accept as false and only then start to remodel is foundation of knowledge. To insure theintegrity of his newly acquired understanding of reality, he uses the manner of doubt. It isonly through this method that he can grasp the true nature of reality. After establishing theexistence of himself, God, and the external world through this method, Descartes feels henow possess a clearer picture of reality.