Questions tagged [descartes]

Questions related to René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650)

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
4 votes
2 answers
377 views

What logical arguments have been made to say an effect cannot be greater than its cause?

I'm currently writing a paper on Descartes argument for God based on his third meditation. One premise of the argument that seems fairly important is the claim that "no effect can be greater than ...
Luke Hill's user avatar
  • 311
9 votes
4 answers
2k views

Does Dissociative ego disorder challenge Descartes‘ „cogito-argument“?

In the 17th century Descartes set out for a new start in philosophy. Applying the method of systematic doubt he searched for a philosophical statement whose truth stands firm and cannot be questioned ...
Jo Wehler's user avatar
  • 24.3k
3 votes
2 answers
119 views

Is the opposite of Descartes “cogito , ergo sum” also true?

Is the opposite of Descartes dictum “I think therefore I am “ also true ? That is , Is “I am unable to think therefore I am not” also true ? That is , Can I say “Those unable to think do not have Self”...
Dheeraj Verma's user avatar
-1 votes
3 answers
92 views

Burden of proof and solipsism

If we say that the burden of proof is on the one making the claim and thus we should only believe in something if we have proof and should otherwise discard it, than the saying that an external world ...
Rayyan khan's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
97 views

A question about Descartes argument for the distinction between humans and animals/machines in Discourse on the Method Part 5

Descartes seemed to have the following problem: At this point I had dwelt on this issue to show that if there were such machines having the organs and outward shape of a monkey or any other ...
Curulian's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
1 answer
83 views

Who is "Anti-Descartes"?

We learn from writings of Descartes that he is always trying to seperate the rational mind from emotional mind and he trusts his rational mind while being sceptic to emotional mind. Also he has a ...
Nabla's user avatar
  • 119
2 votes
1 answer
94 views

How would Heidegger criticize Descartes' melting candle analogy?

I've recently finished reading Being and Time and have attempted to supplement my understanding with different takes on the piece. One interesting angle that I've mused upon myself but haven't seen in ...
Arash Howaida's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
105 views

The private language argument and Descartes's private thoughts

In his "Thinking it Through" textbook, Appiah writes It is a big step from saying that some of our mental states are things that other people can know about, to saying, with the ...
EE18's user avatar
  • 181
4 votes
1 answer
104 views

Does Descartes conclude that imperfection implies perfection?

In the third meditation, does Descartes' knowledge of his limitations, or his imperfections, lead to his conclusion that there must be something limitless, something perfect? In his third meditation, ...
SwabianOrtolan's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
103 views

Does Descartes exclude madness from his meditations?

For Descartes, is madness fundamentally different to dreaming? Reading these blog posts (I am unfamiliar with the discussion really), which has a few points against Foucault's analysis that it is ...
user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
249 views

If the external world indeed exists, would the ontological nihilism idea be conclusively refuted?

Descartes’ cogito has been discussed and, in many’s minds’, refuted ad nauseam. Anywhere you’ll read about ‘nothingness’, you’re likely to encounter some discussion on Descartes and his self-believed ...
Anthony Klich's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
113 views

Did Peirce hold that, when stripped to its absolute core, Descartes’ cogito could be summarized as: ‘There is an Idea’?

In ‘The Simplest Mathematics’ (1933), C.S. peirce elaborated: It is a fundamental mistake to suppose that an idea which stands isolated can be otherwise than perfectly blind. He professes to doubt ...
Anthony Klich's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why did Descartes claim that animals have no souls if they have the pituitary?

As far as I understand it, Descartes claimed that the pituitary is the "antenna" through which the brain and the soul communicate, and he also claimed only human beings have souls. So, how ...
FlatAssembler's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
122 views

About Descartes first meditation

In his first meditation Descartes says that he cannot distinguish a state where he is dreaming from a vigil state. This gives him one reason to at least put in doubt the direct corporeal experience of ...
LAU's user avatar
  • 513
-1 votes
1 answer
54 views

Arguments against personal omphalism [closed]

Personal omphalism is, for a lack of a better term (let me know if you know of a better word), what I call the possibility of one's own mind having come into existence at any point, with one's ...
user1113719's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
63 views

Descartes and volontarism

Was Descartes a volontarist (= Voluntarism is "any metaphysical or psychological system that assigns to the will (Latin: voluntas) a more predominant role than that attributed to the intellect&...
Starckman's user avatar
  • 1,376
6 votes
10 answers
3k views

How does a thought imply there is a thinker in "I think therefore I am"?

How does Descartes say a thought necessarily means there is a thinker? In my opinion, "I think therefore I am" is egocentric because could really stem from an illusion of the thoughts ...
Guillaume Derex's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
95 views

How can Descartes intuit/think without memory?

Descartes presented the Memory response against the cartesian circle. Descartes assumed the reliability of intuition all along. The doubt he laid to rest by proving God's existence is one of memory: ...
tryingtobeastoic's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
105 views

What does it mean to say "I am the game"? [closed]

Do people mean this as flow state? Where you lose sense of time and become immensely engaged with an activity? (e.g. playing an instrument). To say "I am the game" when the person is a chess ...
nsc9's user avatar
  • 31
1 vote
0 answers
69 views

A question about the Descartes' representative ideas being responsible for the scientific notion of sensation

This is from Nanavira's notes on Dhamma, Phassa footnote e: The notion of sensation, however, as we see from the dictionary's definition, is an abomination from the start—how can one 'perceive the ...
Prince Deepthinker's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
717 views

An Argument against Descartes's radical doubt

Reflecting on Descartes's evil genius, I came up with an argument to use against his radical skepticism, that is, when he doubts even the basic laws of logic and basic mathematics (3 + 2 = 5). The ...
Zeruel017's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

What is the bridge between Agrippa's and Descartes' mindsets? What to read to understand the radical change

After Reading a couple of works by Descartes (XVI century), I am now reading "Three Books of Occult Philosophy" by Cornelius Agrippa (around 1530). The difference in mindset and worldview is ...
Chegon's user avatar
  • 139
-1 votes
1 answer
36 views

What is meant by artistic qualities and Can anyone point out some of these qualities?

What is meant by artistic qualities? Can anyone point out some of these qualities?
Just Me's user avatar
  • 99
0 votes
0 answers
58 views

Descartes and natural inclinations and aversions

Descartes mentions “secondary properties” (qualitative properties) which guide human behavior. E. g. we can not only recognize that food became spoiled by its odor but we’re immediately repelled by it....
viuser's user avatar
  • 4,580
-2 votes
3 answers
340 views

Descartes "I am, I exist"

At the start of the second meditation, Descartes seems to work his way to his first indubitable conclusion: "I am, I exist." A question one might ask is: "how do you know you really ...
Luke Harper's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
131 views

How did Descartes made a logical skeptic argument against logic, without falling into a paradox, in his Metaphysical Meditations? Is it actually valid

René Descartes seems to have made some arguments against logic and mathematics in his Metaphysical Meditations, however it seems that these arguments are still logical, and the problem is whether that ...
algo's user avatar
  • 51
1 vote
2 answers
969 views

Quotations from Descartes on Animals as Automata

Animals do not feel pain and are automata. This view is commonly attributed to Descartes. And I would agree that in his philosophy no other conclusion makes sense. But still, I want to distinguish ...
viuser's user avatar
  • 4,580
2 votes
2 answers
173 views

How does idealism deal with 'discovery'?

I just responded to a comment on an old post. At the time I was thinking about Richard Dawkins and his concept of a 'meme'. That is any concept that lives rent-free in the minds of humans and evolves ...
Richard's user avatar
  • 358
1 vote
2 answers
234 views

Can Cogito, ergo sum be formalized?

I was wondering lately whether Descartes argument for the existence of undoubtable truth could be formalized. I tried to formalize his argument in FOL, but only his light version proving that there ...
Eauriel's user avatar
  • 145
1 vote
0 answers
646 views

Large cardinals and in intellectu existence?

I have had some success in the philosophy of mathematics. Briefly I compare Cantor's sets to the clear and distinct ideas of Descartes which is regarded as philosophically rigorous work; on the other ...
Wakem's user avatar
  • 132
1 vote
1 answer
179 views

Implications of Cartesian Psychophysical Dualism for free-will and determinism

For Descartes, reality consists of two fundamental substances: the mental, and the physical. The mental substance is distinct from the physical substance in that it is not bound by the deterministic, ...
KeithMadison's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
118 views

Does my personal philosophy have a name?

I am not trained in philosophical thinking nor have I read philosophy except for the motto "I think therefore I am". My personal philosophy I know that something exists (by observation and ...
chasly - supports Monica's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
75 views

Contributions of Descartes

What ideas did Descartes have about knowledge and reality that were so incongruent with the prevailing neo-Aristotelian paradigm of knowing the real essences of things through abstracting from sense ...
Joa's user avatar
  • 478
5 votes
1 answer
129 views

Descartes and his taxonomy of ideas

Given the context of philosophical ideas such as tabula rasa, empiricism, and rationalism, René Descartes is known for his philosophy of mind and his attempt to analyze thinking as well as his ...
Tushar chaturvedi's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
140 views

Is thinking an activity of a subject?

I am interested in the question of whether thinking must be an activity of a subject. Is it true that thinking has no reality without being a mode of the subject? Could it be possible that there is ...
Apple Silicon's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
48 views

Self-evident vs. self-explanatory vs. ...?

How far apart are these descriptions? I was approaching the issue from the perspective of erotetic logic, and my intuition is that self-evidence is when a proposition is evident from its erotetic ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
238 views

Was the notion of mind-body dualism invented, or at least popularized, by Rene Descartes?

This dualism seems so compelling (from a layman’s perspective) that it seems difficult to imagine that Descartes invented or even popularized it. For instance, people kept using words like “soul” to ...
J Li's user avatar
  • 656
0 votes
0 answers
54 views

Does Descartes avert the divine illumination trope or play it straight?

(Preamble: according to tvtropes.com, a trope can be instantiated, meaning played straight, or almost subversively instantiated, meaning averted.) In the Book of Ezekiel, an entity known as the ...
Kristian Berry's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
328 views

Why is mind/body duality so widely accepted?

It seems strange that Cartesian mind/body duality is so widely accepted, given that it leads to scepticism around the possibility of human knowledge. Why is it so widely accepted, and how do its ...
user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
265 views

Descartes and the concept of motion

If we believe that calculus satisfactorily solves Zeno’s paradoxes of motion, conceptual clarity about real analysis was not achieved before Cauchy's definition of the limit (in “Cours d'Analyse”, ...
viuser's user avatar
  • 4,580
1 vote
0 answers
83 views

How can beliefs be justified when they are always subject to Cartesian skepticism?

It seems obvious to me that after glancing at my watch I "know" what time it is. But this apparent "knowledge" can be explained away by infinitely many skeptical hypotheses. ...
natojato's user avatar
  • 990
0 votes
0 answers
115 views

Can’t we assume that the Boltzmann Brain scenario can be cognitively stable?

In the Boltzmann Brain scenario, we are all brains produced by random fluctuations within a high entropy universe. The argument which I had accepted before was that our very reasoning can not be ...
John Lucas's user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
264 views

Can we say that "I Think Therefore I Am" was never about "I", or thinking, or "I" doing the thinking?

Strictly speaking, "Cogito ergo sum" simply means: "The existence of your own mind can never be in doubt." Item 1) also describes our true knowledge in its entirety. Or we can ...
Yuri Zavorotny's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
142 views

Is the argument "Cogito ergo sum" compatible with metaphysical nihilism?

Metaphysical nihilism says that there might not be any objects at all. I'm not interested in whether there are potential problems with this viewpoint. One problem could be that "Cogito" can't come ...
Nick Decroos's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
41 views

Which conception of a " machine " allows to call "mechanical" Descartes and Hobbes views of nature and of science?

The word "mechanical" comes from a greek word meaning " machine". However, the received definition of mechanical philosophy does not contain the concept of a machine. This school of thought is said ...
user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
80 views

What happened to ( aristotelian) substantial forms in cartesian ontology? On which ground ( metaphysical or physical) are they rejected?

In aristotelian philosophy, there are no bare particulars ( contrary to what is the case in Plato, according to P.V. Spade) but internally structured ( substantial) particulars in which 2 "parts"/...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
35 views

Why does Hayek refer to French 'individualism' as the "Cartesian" school?

I am reading Frederick Hayek right now and saw that he refers to the French liberal tradition, what he calls French "individualism (vs the English liberal tradition of Smith, Ferguson, Burke, etc.) ...
LootHypothesis's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
148 views

Is existence a necessary condition for thinking? [closed]

Is existence a necessary condition for thinking? Descartes argues that because he thinks, he exists. But wouldn't he have to exist in the first place for him to: A) Think and B) Realize that he ...
Joa's user avatar
  • 478
0 votes
4 answers
245 views

Does the frequent study of the history of philosophy cause us to lose critical thinking? [closed]

Does the long and frequent study of the history of philosophy cause us to lose critical thinking and philosophical insight into the issues and, as Descartes puts it, "contaminate ourselves with past ...
dt128's user avatar
  • 131
2 votes
1 answer
68 views

In What Sense is Substance Epistemically Prior?

In Metaphysics Z (1028a32), Aristotle outlines different senses in which a substance can be considered to be "first": there are several senses in which a thing is said to be first; yet substance is ...
Moritz Loritz's user avatar

1
2 3 4 5