Descartes Meditations Essay -- essays research papers

Meditations is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is truly real. In these writings, he ultimately hopes to achieve absolute certainty about the nature of everything including God, the physical world, and himself. It is only with a clear and distinct knowledge of such things that he can then begin understand his true reality. Descartes starts by looking at our usual sources for truth. Authority, which is churches, parents, and schools, he says, are not reliable sources for truth because time shows we all die, and that we are eventually proved wrong, much in the same way the accepted truths of science have changed dramatically over the course of history. Also, he considers the generally excepted view that our senses dependably report the absolute nature of reality. Simiar to authority, Descartes discards the senses as a source of truth because of the â€Å"Dream Argument† or the belief that based on the senses there is no definite way of proving that you are dreaming or that you are awake. Therefore it is possible that everything we believe is false, making the senses an unreliable source. Upon establishing this, Descartes doubts the existence of a physical or external world. Despite that he has an idea of things in the world, he has no way of knowing if they exist past his own mind. Another point he addresses is mathematics. He soon realizes math’s truth isn’t completely reliable because of the â€Å"Demon Hypothesis†, which acknowledges the possibility of an all powerful being that is deceiving him about everything, including mathematics. As a result, Descartes ponders the possibility that he has no way of being completely positive about anything, even his existence. It is only after some deliberation that he decides that it is impossible to be incorrect about everything because he has doubt, and to posses doubt, there must be a doubter. Hence, he doubts, therefore he exists. With the assurance of his existence, he is presented with the deeper question of what he, himself, actually is. Descartes knows that he is not just a body based on his doubt of the senses. Despite the fact that he feels he is not a body, he does believe he has properties, such as doubt, that make him a substance. From this he concludes that his is an immaterial substance and that his essential property is self-consciousness because you can have no real proof of yourself except through your own... ...man life is acquisition of salvation and eternal life. Conversely, what science tells us is that the world is completely deterministic or all just a course of random evolution. Descartes feels that the two, mind and matter, are in completely different arenas, both of which were created by God. The mind deals chiefly with freedom, and personal responsibility, which lies in the field of religion. Whereas matter is more connected to science, buts doesn't negate the influence of God because God provided us with a system, mathematics, to better understand the physical world around us. Thus, if accurately comprehended, no conflict should arise between science and religion. Descartes' focus in Meditations is absolute certainty. To achieve this he first must strike all that he has come to accept as false and only then start to rebuild is foundation of knowledge. To insure the integrity of his newly acquired understanding of reality, he uses the method of doubt. It is only through this method that he can grasp the true nature of reality. After establishing the existence of himself, God, and the external world through this method, Descartes feels he now possess a clearer picture of reality.