Descartes' View: Meditations on First Philosophy Edition

Descartes' View
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Descartes proposed his philosophical thoughts based on metaphysics with six meditations that are more like principles that also distinguishes the mind from the body. Additionally Descartes used the meditation genre to propose his philosophy in an era where there was spiritual reformation. The meditations were proposed as a way to gain understanding and provide a philosophical foundation, allowing Descartes to reject and doubt what he already knew as gained knowledge and no longer expressed skepticism. He further goes on to use the analogy of a dream to question his existence, and he had to be sure that his thoughts were not a dream. This review on the strengths and weaknesses of the six meditations in Descartes’ book Meditations on first philosophy and relation to human nature. In this paper, I shall argue that Descartes the methodic doubt establishes the foundation of his meditations, where the meditator gains knowledge, but then Descartes’ fails to support his claims with real-life situations.
Descartes’ first meditation is the methodic doubt, as he becomes certain that he exists and this lays the foundation for other ideas in his philosophical work. Descartes is right to highlight the need to debunk falsehoods that have been believed, since for one to get knowledgeable they must question rather than accept ideas. This approach allows Descartes to question his assumptions that have largely been a result of their senses and gain knowledge. However, what one believes may be deceptive as it is what they have learned. The fist meditation captures some aspects of human nature where senses can be deceptive, but this is not always the case. Despite providing examples where senses trick the mediator into believing some untrue things, Descartes uses this notion to argue that senses inevitably deceive humans, who have to question everything. There is a weakness to this thought since sense do not necessarily deceive people, ince when one identifies them they can correct them People who have long held certain opinions, but as they gain more knowledge they can separate truth from belief when they are doubtful and skeptical about different situations [Meditation (12)].
Descartes is at times unconvincing in his attempts to show that one cannot see through deception. For one to determine that their senses deceive them they are more likely to identify that a deception actually occurs through errors, but there is no way to know whether God is the one deceiving human beings. Human beings may recognize when they are being deceived and avoid deception all together, bit relying on one’s senses is no guarantee that there will be able to uncover deception. Skepticism allows people to question what they believe, while in reality people doubt even what is knowledge. Additionally, Descartes argues that to establish certainty then one must exercise methodic doubt, but even when one is skeptical about a belief this does not mean that it does not constitute knowledge just because there are doubts surrounding the belief. Nonetheless, Descartes points out that anyone seeking to gain knowledge should not be inspired by doubts related to vulgarity at any instance [Meditations (12)].
For Descartes thoughts on doubt and skepticism to be more plausible then they must go hand in hand with rationality since one cannot simply doubt everything. The mediator states, “I shall then suppose, not that God who is supremely good and the foundation of truth, but some evil genius not less powerful than deceitful, has employed his whole energies in deceiving me,” [Meditations (8) ]. Descartes then supposes that one can suspend their judgment on what is false, while also supporting the notion that not everything can be question. For instance, the mediator has hands, blood, eyes and flesh and this is undisputed. This contradicts Descartes’ ideas that one must question all ideas to build knowledge.
To Descartes, the mind’s conceptions are more powerful to a person since the notion that they exist begins with the mind. The second meditation then highlights that the person has no doubt that his thoughts are his own, but he cannot say the same about his body. This is true since I am capable of thinking, while I also doubted things and made sense of them after exploring them further. As such, a person’s perceptions are based on thoughts, but to go beyond the thought patterns and make meaning one has to have judgment Descartes supports his view arguing that animals have sense and maybe imagination, but it is only through judgment are able to gain more knowledge. Additionally, people themselves better compared to the bodies, as their thought are manifested through the content of their mind.
Descartes further explores how doubt and uncertainty in his second meditation and how this is related to the nature of the mind. It is indisputable that the meditator is a thinking being, and Descartes argues that the distinct separation of the mind (soul) and the body. “And what more? I shall exercise my imagination [in order to see if I am not something more]. I am not a collection of members which we call the human body,” [Meditations (10)]. However, the notion that the mid and the body do not interact is an assumption that ignores instances where interaction takes place. It follows that Descartes’ premise on the nature of the mind is wrong. Descartes thought that the thoughts and mental processes are distinct from the physical states is also based on what can be seen. The two only seem separate, but this does not disapprove that they could be related and joined in a way that human beings cannot explain.
Descartes proves God’s existence using different arguments. He first ex...