Essay about Descartes Wax Passage - 1096 Words

Descartes Wax Passage How do we know what we know? Ideas reside in the minds of intelligent beings, but a clear perception of where these ideas come from is often the point of debate. It is with this in mind that Renà © Descartes set forth on the daunting task to determine where clear and distinct ideas come from. A particular passage written in Meditations on First Philosophy known as the wax passage shall be examined. Descartes thought process shall be followed, and the central point of his argument discussed. In Meditations on First Philosophy, it is the self-imposed task of Descartes to cast doubt upon all which he knows in order to build a solid foundation of knowledge out of irrefutable truths. Borrowing an idea from†¦show more content†¦Descartes concludes that the attribute of thinking is the only quality that he can justifiably claim at this point. But he is quick to point out that thinking is the only attribute about which he is sure; not that thinking is the only attribute that he has. Nevertheless, this is the starting point of a radical ontological distinction that carries Descartes through his Meditations. That distinction is between a thinking thing and a corporeal body. The two are mutually exclusive. A thinking thing is nonphysical or spiritual in nature, whereas a corporeal body is physical, but not capable of consciousness or thought. For Descartes, a thinking thing is consciously aware of what is around it and doubts, understands some, is ignorant of most, imagines, and feels. Once Descartes established himself as a thinking thing, his attention turns to the external world. Descartes reflects upon his dealing with physical objects, and questions the state of physical nature, dealing directly with the senses. Restating the fact that Descartes believes that these sensations of taste, touch, smell, and the like can be fooled, he attacks these bodily perceptions, not from the point of what makes them true, but rather what makes them false. These senses lead him to ideas of external objects, which he claims to perceive clearly and distinctly, yet he is notShow MoreRelatedDescartes Meditations On First Philosophy922 Words   |  4 PagesIn Rene Descartes’ excerpt, Meditations on First Philosophy, he proclaims, â€Å"It is beyond question that I shall reach the truth if I think hard enough about the things that I perfectly understand, keeping them separate from all the other matters in which my thoughts are more confused and obscure† ( §104). When Descartes made this statement in his fourth meditation, what was he conjecturing by the term â€Å"perfect?† According to the standard interpretation, perfect encompasses all required or desirableRead MoreThe Cartesian Cogito By Rene ÃÅ'  Descartes1513 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Meditation Two† of Meditations, Objections, and Replies, ReneÃŒ  Descartes argues that we cannot doubt our own existence. Descartes’s Cogito argument is actually stimulated by the â€Å"numerous† â€Å"false opinions† (9) in â€Å"Meditation One†, which he believed true in his youth but now doubts and attempts to attack through his own writing. Descartes’s doubts involve three stages. The first doubt concerns sense illusion. In other words, Descartes formerly maintained that we obtained truth â€Å"either from the sensesRead MoreThe Philosophical Area Of Dualism Essay2267 Words   |  10 PagesHow Does Descartes Argue For This Conclusion? Is He Right That Our Essence Cannot Be Physical? In the philosophical area of dualism, the positions that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical, or that the mind and body are not identical are investigated. In Descartes’ Meditations II and VI, he stated â€Å"I consider myself as having a face, hands, arms, and all that system of members composed on bones and flesh as seen in a corpse which I designated by the name body† (Descartes 1641, 9)Read MoreDavid Hume And Rene Descartes1816 Words   |  8 Pageswhat makes something what it is, and makes it distinct from others. We cannot simply say we are who we are, but we must look deeper into the concepts of our mind and body, our perceptions, and memory. Well-known philosophers, David Hume and Rene Descartes are some of the individuals who searched for an answer and definition of personal identity. Both considered the perceptions of their mind and came up with two different conclusions. One stating that personal identity in unintelligible, and the otherRead MoreAn Investigation Into Aristotelian Functionalism1751 Words   |  8 Pagesresult of the composition of the body/matter — the functioning body posses the property of being alive, but we cannot credit any one particular part for giving life to the body. While this position denies the existence of a mental substance (a la Descartes), it acknowledges that mental properties (for instance: sensation and consciousness) might exist that are the product of the organization or structure of the matter of the body. Some, like Richard Sorabji, have argued that we should not take AristotleRead MoreLocke s Views On Human Understanding Is Not A Direct Attack With Descartes1951 Words   |  8 Pageswith Descartes along with Locke are wide and varied, this does not exclude an opportunity of characteristics. In reality, I believe there are several points associated with agreement between Locke along with Descartes. Locke s Essay Concerning Human Understanding is not a direct attack with Descartes; in comparison, it is surely an account associated with epistemology which often, though not Cartesian, was influenced in part by Locke s reading of Descartes. Locke borrowed a lot of Descartes philosophicalRead MoreDescartes Proof for the Existence of God Essay3414 Words   |  14 PagesDescartes Proof for the Existence of God Many readers follow Descartes with fascination and pleasure as he descends into the pit of skepticism in the first two Meditations, defeats the skeptics by finding the a version of the cogito, his nature, and that of bodies, only to find them selves baffled and repulsed when they come to his proof for the existence of God in Meditation III. In large measure this change of attitude results from a number of factors. One is that the proof is complicatedRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pagesselected exclusively from the author s writings on cinematographic problems.* Since this is, therefore, a collection, I have not tried to eliminate or disguise the few inevitable repetitions. Similarly, I have not allowed myself to excise or replace passages that, as a result of the lapse in time between their original publication and the printing of this volume, have become obsolete and no longer correspond to the present state of my investigations.** Thus, in the case of partial changes in my orientation