Search results
Meditations on First Philosophy. by Rene Descartes. MEDITATION I. OF THE THINGS OF WHICH WE MAY DOUBT. 1. SEVERAL years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in ...
While we thus reject all of which we can entertain the smallest doubt, and even imagine that it is false, we easily indeed suppose that there is neither God, nor sky, nor bodies, and that we ourselves even have neither hands nor feet, nor, finally, a body; but we cannot in the same way suppose that we are not while we doubt of the truth of these things; for there is a repugnance in conceiving ...
In the First Meditation, Descartes reflects on the number of falsehoods he has believed to be true during his life and subsequently the faultiness of the body of knowledge he has come to have. He ...
In the first place, then, I thought that I possessed a countenance, hands, arms, and all the fabric of members that appears in a corpse, and which I called by the name of body. It further occurred to me that I was nourished, that I walked, perceived, and thought, and all those actions I referred to the soul; but what the soul itself was I ...
- “It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.” ― René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy.
- “Dubium sapientiae initium. (Doubt is the origin of wisdom.)” ― Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy.
- “Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them.
- “But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.”
Apr 27, 2023 · Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, is a series of six philosophical meditations in which he attempts to establish a foundation for knowledge that is certain and that cannot be doubted. Descartes is widely regarded as the father of modern Western philosophy due to his contributions to the field of epistemology.
People also ask
What is Descartes method of doubt?
Should we make use of doubt in the conduct of life?
Why does Descartes have a doubt?
Is it prudent to place complete confidence in a deceived person?
Are We deceived if we don't apprehend?
Why does the meditator need a reason to doubt his opinions?
Analysis. The First Meditation is usually approached in one of two ways. First, it can be read as setting the groundwork for the meditations that follow, where doubt is employed as a powerful tool against Aristotelian philosophy. Second, it can, and often is, read standing on its own as the foundation of modern skepticism.
