Meditations On First Philosophy

Meditations on first philosophy Name Institution Meditations on first philosophy René Descartes, the author of the book had it first published in the year 1641 in Latin. The book is a discussion that majorly dwells on belief in the mind and the soul, God, the metaphysical and the physical as well as the belief systems of the human being. The author seeks to question the rationale behind either beliefs or doubts that the human mind conceives and the validity of such thoughts and concepts. He delves into such discussions at length, offering arguments and counter-arguments for and against certain beliefs. René Descartes also invites other scholars and philosophers with dissenting opinions to critique his ideologies, and he provides the replies to such theories in this discourse. This manuscript is structured into six main parts that he calls meditations, each meditation taking on a particular point of view. Descartes begins by questioning the validity of all that his mind conceives and all that he previously knew. He arrives at this decision after he begins to reflect on the number of falsehoods that he has believed over the years, either informed by his thoughts or conclusions or informed by other information passed down to him through other sources like literature, education, and interactions with other people. The meditator resolves to do away with everything that he previously knew and building on more robust and founded backgrounds, backgrounds informed by judgments that he makes himself after further analysis. Since he finds it difficult to entirely do away with all the knowledge that he has acquired over the years, the meditator opts to invalidate them and proceeds to prove them right systematically. Descartes employs the theory of skepticism actively in his illustrations of coming up with proper foundations about solid foundations about his beliefs. He says that it is not possible to know anything in the world or around us with certainty, but we can only consider the possibility of its existence. This, therefore, creates room for skepticism. After ensuring the confidence of a thought without a doubt, only then can we come to certain conclusions about the subject. However, the meditator chose not to doubt all things randomly and without reason. Before a concept or thought was ruled out, the author had to check and countercheck its validity methodically and rationally. His goal was to suspend judgment that was even slightly doubtful as unreliable and not believable. He also wrote about doubts and truths in his fourth meditation, “Concerning the True and the False.” He admits that the thoughts he conceived prior and his beliefs he had or was yet to make were not completely flawless. He points out that “insofar as I am distinct from the supreme entity itself and lack many things — it's not surprising that I go wrong. I thus understand that, in itself, error is a lack, rather than a real thing dependent on God. Hence, I understand that I can err without God's having given me a special ability to do so. Rather, I fall into error because my God-given ability to judge the truth is not infinite. (Descartes, n.d.).” Descartes also attempted in his works to prove the validity and existence of God, offering counter-arguments against already existing theories provided by other philosophers disapproving his presence. He pitched into the age-old question concerning the reality of an all perfect, all supreme, all knowing, and all powerful being in his third meditation as well as the fifth meditation. In the third meditation, he insists that there are three types of ideas. The first type was innate ideas, referring to ideas or concepts that are in-built. This type is imprinted in the human being and has no external source seeing as they develop from the person and his entirety. The other example was fictitious or invented, referring to ideas that are a creation of the human mind, whether collectively or individually. The last case was adventitious ideas, which are those that are drawn from the experiences of the world along with everyday interactions (Descartes, n.d.). In the meditation dubbed “Of God: that He exists,” the mediator offers two arguments. Before going into them, he first suggests that the idea of God has to be innate, rather than being fictitious or adventitious. He suggests that the concept through which he perceives God is not a resul...