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Showing posts with label Rene' Descartes 1596-1650 A.C.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rene' Descartes 1596-1650 A.C.. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

"Meditations on the First Philosophy" by Rene' Descartes

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Perhaps everything we believe is false.
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There seems to be no way of avoiding the skeptical consequences of systematic doubt.
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But if one is doubting one exists.
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This is the starting point for a philosophy based on certainty.
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But if one exists,one is a thinker,a mind ;
and since one conceives of a God whose conception is beyond one's powers,
there must be such a being.
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But if God exists,then we can count on our sense experience and our reason,
provided we are careful to believe only what is clearly and distrinctly true.
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Monday, October 12, 2009

"Discourse on method'' by Rene' Descartes

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The proper method for philosophy is as follows :
Never accept any ideas as true which is not clearly and distinctly beyond doubt ;
Divide each complex question into simple,basic questions ;
Proceed from the simple to the complex ;
Review all steps in reasoning.
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If this method is put into practice,there seems to be no proposition that cannot be doubted except the following :
''COGITO EGO SUM''
''I THINK,THEREFOR I AM''
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As thinking substance,I have the idea of God ;
and since the idea of a perfect being could not have been derived from my own experience or being,God must excist as the source of my idea.
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Furthermore,imperfect and dependent being could not exist unless there were a perfect being,God who made their existence possible ;
in addition,God by his very nature exists,for if he did not exist of necessity,he would not be perfect.
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Since God exists,he provides the ground for our knowledge about the external world provided that we are carreful to accept as true only those ideas which are clearly and distinctly beyond doubt once the reliability of the senses and of the reason can be seen to be derived fron GOD.
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