Meditation - What is Descartes Meditation? Part 2
Descartes is often referred to as the first modern philosopher.
He is credited with having made important connections between geometry and algebra that brought about solutions to geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations.
He is also famous for having promoted a new concept regarding matter which allowed for the accounting of physical phenomena by way of mechanical explanations.
Here are some excerpts from the book of Descartes Meditations2: Descartes Meditation 2 - OF THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN MIND; AND THAT IT IS MORE EASILY KNOWN THAN THE BODY.
1.
The Meditation of yesterday has filled my mind with so many doubts, that it is no longer in my power to forget them.
Nor do I see, meanwhile, any principle on which they can be resolved; and, just as if I had fallen all of a sudden into very deep water, I am so greatly disconcerted as to be unable either to plant my feet firmly on the bottom or sustain myself by swimming on the surface.
I will, nevertheless, make an effort, and try anew the same path on which I had entered yesterday, that is, proceed by casting aside all that admits of the slightest doubt, not less than if I had discovered it to be absolutely false; and I will continue always in this track until I shall find something that is certain, or at least, if I can do nothing more, until I shall know with certainty that there is nothing certain.
Archimedes, that he might transport the entire globe from the place it occupied to another, demanded only a point that was firm and immovable; so, also, I shall be entitled to entertain the highest expectations, if I am fortunate enough to discover only one thing that is certain and indubitable.
This is just one of the sixteen paragraphs in Descartes Meditation 2; here he lays out a pattern of though, sometimes called representationalism, in response to the doubts forwarded in Meditation 1, arguing that this representational theory disconnects the world from the mind, leading to the need for some sort of bridge to span the separation and provide good reasons that the ideas accurately represent the outside world.
Descartes Meditations I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, are writings that discards all his beliefs in things which are not absolutely certain, and then he tries to establish what can be known and understood for sure.
He is credited with having made important connections between geometry and algebra that brought about solutions to geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations.
He is also famous for having promoted a new concept regarding matter which allowed for the accounting of physical phenomena by way of mechanical explanations.
Here are some excerpts from the book of Descartes Meditations2: Descartes Meditation 2 - OF THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN MIND; AND THAT IT IS MORE EASILY KNOWN THAN THE BODY.
1.
The Meditation of yesterday has filled my mind with so many doubts, that it is no longer in my power to forget them.
Nor do I see, meanwhile, any principle on which they can be resolved; and, just as if I had fallen all of a sudden into very deep water, I am so greatly disconcerted as to be unable either to plant my feet firmly on the bottom or sustain myself by swimming on the surface.
I will, nevertheless, make an effort, and try anew the same path on which I had entered yesterday, that is, proceed by casting aside all that admits of the slightest doubt, not less than if I had discovered it to be absolutely false; and I will continue always in this track until I shall find something that is certain, or at least, if I can do nothing more, until I shall know with certainty that there is nothing certain.
Archimedes, that he might transport the entire globe from the place it occupied to another, demanded only a point that was firm and immovable; so, also, I shall be entitled to entertain the highest expectations, if I am fortunate enough to discover only one thing that is certain and indubitable.
This is just one of the sixteen paragraphs in Descartes Meditation 2; here he lays out a pattern of though, sometimes called representationalism, in response to the doubts forwarded in Meditation 1, arguing that this representational theory disconnects the world from the mind, leading to the need for some sort of bridge to span the separation and provide good reasons that the ideas accurately represent the outside world.
Descartes Meditations I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, are writings that discards all his beliefs in things which are not absolutely certain, and then he tries to establish what can be known and understood for sure.
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