The descartes tag has no wiki summary.
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Who else besides Spinoza has described how to resolve Descartes separation of thought and matter?
Descarte famously divided thought from matter and placed them in separate realms.
Spinoza put them together by placing them within God as the two modes - thought and extension - that are visible to ...
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1answer
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Does the Simulation Argument differ in essence from the Evil Genius puzzle?
I recently read an article that suggested we might be able to determine if we are part of a computer simulation run by our descendants. The idea seemed far-fetched, but after looking around, I see ...
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157 views
Does Cogito ergo sum need to be more specific?
Something about my translation has bothered me since I originally posted my question (which follows below). It concerns what Bertrand Russell wrote in "On Denoting". Ryno indicated a circularity with ...
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Does Descartes prove that he isn't dreaming?
I had a midterm question where this was relevant, essentially it was:
"Assuming you're an atheist, how would you prove to Descartes that your last vacation wasn't a dream?"
I put that since ...
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1answer
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Relativism and 'I think, therefore I am'
I'm no philosopher and haven't extensively read or studied any philosophers.
I've recently been reading up a little on relativism and what it means and I'm a little confused about to what it is ...
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1answer
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Descartes's concept of the Immutability of the Divine Will
According to the abstract of this article1,
... Descartes' God acts by a single immutable will for all eternity, and there is no sense in which it is possible for Him to will or to have willed ...
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Because if you doubt that you're doubting, you're still doubting
In an answer here, the following was stated:
The essence of his [Descartes] argument is that you can doubt almost everything about the world, but you can't doubt that you're doubting. Because if ...
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What were Descartes's justifications for the human ability to doubt, and why did he think it was so important?
In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes resolved to systematically doubt that any of his beliefs were true. This was done in order to build a system of belief that would consist of only ...
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Is Descarte putting the cart before the horse when he says 'cogito ergo sum'?
Famously Descartes said 'Cogito ergo sum'. I'm a bit puzzled by this. I do not need to think in order to assert/understand/intuit that I exist: when I wake up in the morning I immediately intuit that ...
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1answer
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Is the Cartesian methodological doubt deeply flawed?
In order to acquire irrefutable knowledge, Descartes first doubted everything, even the existence of an external world. Then, starting from the "cogito, ergo sum", he started proving the existence of ...
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Has Descartes also been analyzed from a psychological point of view, including the circumstances of his time?
One way to look at "cogito ergo sum" is as an interesting intellectual thought. But Descartes clearly indicates that he actually had this thought in winter 1619 under very special circumstances:
I ...
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Has there been a Cartesian revolution in mathematics?
In his book "Méthodes modernes en géométrie", Jean Fresnel wrote:
il ne faut pas se faire d'illusions, Descartes résout des problème de géométrie,
non parce qu'il a de la méthode, mais parce ...
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1answer
163 views
Did Wittgenstein's maxim about doubt and knowing originate from Descartes?
Wittgenstein said, "If you cannot doubt a thing, you cannot know it."
For example he said that you cannot know your pain because you cannot doubt that you are in pain. I don't quite understand this ...
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1answer
128 views
Underlying logical structure behind Descartes' Ontological argument?
Quoting SEP:
Version A:
Whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive to be contained in the
idea of something is true of that thing.
I clearly and distinctly perceive that necessary ...
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3answers
351 views
What is the modern solution to the mind-body problem for those who still hold the mind is separate?
René Descartes gave us the problem of how the mind interacts with the body in its modern formulation. Essentially, he asked how the incorporeal mind was able to influence the material body. He also ...
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5answers
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Does the concept of existence entail the concept of death?
Does the concept of existence entail the concept of death? I am asking this because many philosophers have tried to prove the existence of god (Descartes through the Meditations) by saying that he ...
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12answers
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Could 'cogito ergo sum' possibly be false?
I've heard it postulated by some people that "we can't truly know anything". Whilst that does seem to apply to the vast majority of things, I can't see how 'cogito ergo sum' can possibly be false. ...
