Knowledge as a Key to Philosophy

There are nevertheless ii mental operations by which true noesis can be attained, says Descartes, and these are the methods of mathematics. Intuition is the experienceing of taken for granted(predicate) principles. These are statements that are self-evident in that they prove themselves to reason, for to understand them is to know that they are absolutely true. They are propositions which no noetic hear can discredit. The second method is deduction, by which Descartes meat orderly, logical reasoning of inference from self-evident propositions. Descartes said that the headland secret of method was to arrange all the facts into a deductive, logical system. Descartes wishes to build a system of philosophy based on intuition and deduction, a system that will remain as permanent as and true as geometry. Descartes sets forth iii requirement for the foundations of this philosophy:

1) Its consequence must be such(prenominal) that it is impossible to doubt, it is self-evident to reason, it is clear and distinct.

2) Its certainty must be ultimate and not dependent upon the certainty of any different be lie downf.

3) It must be astir(predicate) something which exists, and from it beliefs about the existence of other things can then be deduced (Lavine 93-95).

Self-evident propositions did not involve ideas about the nature of things. Descartes said we could not deduce a priori the existence of particu

Descartes by the one-fifth Meditation considers the degree to which something may be true when the promontory is not directed toward it. He uses as an example his competency to recognize that the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, something he cannot doubt when it is demonstrated. However, when he stops view about it, he might easily begin to doubt that it is true.

He comes to the conclusion that it remains true because it exists in the mind of God, and he (the philosopher) knows God (Bernard Williams 194).

Williams, Michael. "Descartes and the Metaphysics of Doubt." In Essays on Descartes' "Meditations", Am?lie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy: Descartes to Liebniz. parvenu York: Doubleday, 1963.

By using the method of mathematics, philosophy could achieve absolute certainty and could prove itself, as mathematics does, to my own reason, to human reason, and be acknowledged as universally true (Lavine 93).

In the commencement ceremony Meditation Descartes makes himself doubt that he has an idea of any rattling existing thing. He rejects as false all his beliefs about material objects, even his faith in the reality of sincere material natures. . . In the Second Meditation he notices that to be deceived by the demon there must be a medium of deception, namely thought, and if thought, then a real thinker, himself (Sorell 59-60).

Sorell, Tom. Descartes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

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