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Rene Descartes - This
website lists more than 100 philosophical papers &
essays on Descartes.
Click here for a list of Descartes papers!
Descartes was an
intellectual trail-blazer during the European
Enlightenment of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He
pioneered a radical movement which shook the traditional
foundation of philosophy to expose widening cracks in
previously unquestioned logic. Descartes warned the masses
that what they had been raised to believe was knowledge
may have been based upon flawed logic. Like many of his
contemporaries, Descartes was questioning conventional
beliefs, and when he found them to be lacking, began to
explore alternative methods.
According to Descartes, nothing should be blindly
accepted as the truth. Man must liberate his mind so that
he may freely pursue that which is truly knowledge, and
not merely a representation of knowledge. This is the
central idea behind Descartes’ Meditations on the
First Philosophy, which presents six arguments on how
man can ‘free’ himself to recognize truth and the
meaning of his existence. In the first meditation,
Descartes’ stated categorically that he believed he had
been misled by false knowledge that had passed itself off
as being true. The only way to recognize knowledge is to
constantly probe and prod it to make sure the logic upon
which it is based doesn’t collapse. As Descartes wrote,
"I have ever since been convinced that if I am to
establish anything firm and lasting in the sciences, I
must once and for all, and hitherto give credence,
starting entirely anew, and building from the foundations
up" (28). The best way to raze this foundation,
according to Descartes, is to have "suitably freed
my mind from all cares... I shall at last apply myself
earnestly and freely to the general overthrow of all my
former opinions" (28). What has become known as
"Cartesian doubt" arises from the First
Meditation, where Descartes asserted that nothing is
beyond questioning, including the existence of God. If the
mind remains closed by previously-established conclusions,
man will never achieve the freedom he seeks through
knowledge. As Descartes pointed out, when man is asleep
and having a dream, the sensations he experiences appear
to be quite real. It is only when he awakens that true
insight is possible. At Descartes-Essays.Com, we
work hard to write papers that will awaken the minds of
college philosophy students everywhere.. giving them
insight into the life & works of Rene Descartes...
Click here for a list of papers!
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