If you order your research paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on Descarte. What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality Descarte paper right on time.
Our staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in Descarte, therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your Descarte paper at affordable prices!
In this essay, I propose to explain Descartes's system of methodic doubt. It will be necessary to look at his thoughts throughout his work in "The meditations". I will also show how Descartes subjected to doubt, all that could be possibly doubted, and arrived at the indubitable proposition: Cogito ergo sum, or I think, therefore I am. I will also explain how Descartes proceeded from this basis to prove the existence of God. Finally, I will conclude with how these two propositions together, for Descartes, established the certainty of human knowledge.
Descartes devised his system of methodic doubt in order to discover an indubitable belief, which he could use as a certain, and secure foundation as the basis for knowledge. For Descartes it was necessary to look inside himself at all the beliefs he once held as true, and subject them to the strongest of doubts. For the purpose of freeing himself from all preconceived opinions, he allowed himself to believe that all his past beliefs were false and imaginary, as he states in the first meditation: " So, for the purpose of rejecting all my opinions, it will be enough if I find in each of them at least some reason for doubt." (Cottingham 1984, p12). This provided Descartes with the easiest path by which to lead the mind away from the senses. In considering how far doubt can be extended, he begins by questioning his sense perception.
Descartes realises that everything that he has up till now accepted as true has been acquired either from the senses or through the senses. However there have been times when he has found that his senses can deceive, such as when objects may appear differently from various points of view, and that therefore it is highly probable that other things which appear certain through the senses may in reality be illusions. On further reflection, Descartes ponders the proposition of being asleep or awake. He wonders if this is something that cannot be doubted. However he soon realises that there have been times when he has been asleep and dreaming of the same experiences he had when awake. Descartes argues: "How often asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events-that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire-when in fact I am lying undressed in bed!" (Cottingham 1984, p13). Descartes comes to realise that dreaming and reality are so blurred that he cannot know if anything occurring is true or false and that therefore the external world may be an illusion. Descartes thus asserts that all the knowledge derived from the senses cannot be regarded as absolutely certain.
Descartes then considers the propositions of mathematics and the fact that a square has four sides and that two and three always makes five. This he perceives to be true whether he is asleep or awake and it appears that this cannot be doubted. On further consideration, however, Descartes considers the possibility that God may have brought it about that he just imagines these things are true, that God is making his mind incorrect when he adds two and three or counts the sides of a square. He further imagines that God is causing him to have sensations in his mind of the things he perceives around him. However when considering God as supremely good, Descartes finds it hard to believe that this supreme good being would deceive, therefore, Descartes invents the idea of an evil demon who is deceiving him, Descartes says of the evil demon: " I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgment" (Cottingham 1984, p13). Descartes introduces this idea of the evil demon in order to prevent the return of the former beliefs previously called into doubt. Therefore at the end of the first meditation, Descartes is now in the position where he has put aside all his beliefs as not being fully certain. Thereafter within his second meditation he manages to limit the spread of doubt brought about by the evil demon hypothesis.
Write a research paper on Descarte
Eventually, after consideration of all the beliefs he has doubted and set aside, Descartes realises that there is one thing he is doing all the time, and that is using his mind to think. For Descartes, by the very procedure of imagining an evil demon and the fact that he is thinking, establishes that he exists. This becomes for him the one sure and certain proposition on which to base his knowledge. Descartes considering the evil demon deceiving him states: "In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me, and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think I am something." (Cottingham 1984, p17). This forms the basis of Descartes belief in the certainty that if nothing else, he exists. The point here is that it is impossible to doubt the truth of this proposition, therefore for Descartes the entire context of human knowledge consists upon this single proposition: "Cogito ergo sum", or, I think therefore I am. Even if he is dreaming, or God or an evil demon is trying to deceive him, his clearest perception of himself is as a thinking thing.
Descartes affirms this thinking self by the fact that he has sense and imagination, he wonders if there is anything, which corresponds to all this activity, and that now that he is certain of his own existence, if there is anything else of which he can be certain. This is how Descartes leaves at the end of the second meditation. He then comes back to this problem at the beginning of the third meditation and when he reconsiders the idea of the evil demon, in his mind he looks around and finds an idea of God, a supreme being and he wonders how the idea got there. In considering the idea of God as eternal, infinite and omnipotent Descartes discovers: " All these attributes are such that, the more carefully I concentrate on them, the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone. So from what has been said it must be concluded that God necessarily exists" (Cottingham 1984, p31).
Descartes proceeds in his demonstration of the existence of God by analysing the nature of thought, for Descartes there are three kinds of ideas: ideas, which he invents, ideas, which appear to be, and ideas, which are innate. For Descartes the most important ideas are innate which he finds in his mind, he knows that he is not the cause of his own idea of God because he thinks that any idea of an infinite all-knowing God transcends his own mental ability. God, therefore, causes the idea of God in his mind as he says: "This idea of a supremely perfect and infinite being is, I say, true in the highest degree; for although perhaps one may imagine that such a being does not exist, it cannot be supposed that the idea of such a being represents something unreal" (Cottingham 1984, p31). He concludes that God of whom he has an idea must possess all the perfection of which he cannot. Here he is trying to establish a definite proof of the existence of God and he discovers within his conscious mind this second certain proposition, namely God, exists.
Finally, Descartes considers whether material things exist. For Descartes, God guarantees that all the stuff in his mind must come from the stuff outside his mind and because God is not deceitful, God is the guarantee that there is something corresponding to all that stuff, as Descartes affirms:
"Now, however, I have perceived that God exists, and at the same time I have understood that everything else depends on him, and he is no deceiver; and I have drawn the conclusion that everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive is of necessity true. (Cottingham 1984, p48).
It becomes clear that the foundation of knowledge for Descartes is not just the certainty "Cogito ergo sum" I think therefore I am. There is a second certainty, namely, that God exists. Together these two propositions, constitute for Descartes the foundation of all human knowledge, he goes on to say in the sixth meditation that now that he is certain that he himself exists, and certain that God exists, then it follows that there must be an external world, because within his mind he finds an idea of God and God wouldn't allow him to be deceived. Therefore everything he knows through the senses and through his reason really exists. Then he goes back through all the various beliefs, which he had previously doubted, and accepts that they are in fact trustworthy. This concludes the sixth a last meditation of Descartes method of establishing the certainty of human knowledge.
References and bibliography
Berlin, Isaiah, (ed), The Age of Enlightenment, (London: New English Library, 1956).
Copleston, Frederick, A History of Philosophy, vols 4,5, (London: Burns and Oates, 1965).
Cottingham, John, (ed), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
Craig, Edward, Routledge encyclopedia, (London: Routledge, 1998).
Hampshire, Stuart, (ed), The Age of Reason, (London: New English Library, 1956).
Ree, Jonathan, (ed), Descartes, (London: Penguin, 1974).
Please note that this sample paper on Descarte is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on Descarte, we are here to assist you. Your persuasive essay on Descarte will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
Order your authentic assignment and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!
