Descartes Vs. Berkeley 03/05/95

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Descartes vs. Berkeley 03/05/95


In Descartes' First Meditation, Descartes writes that he has
come to the conclusion that many of the opinions he held in his
youth are doubtful, and consequently all ideas built upon those
opinions are also doubtful. He deduces that he will have to
disprove his current opinions and then construct a new foundation
of knowledge if he wants to establish anything firm and lasting in
the sciences that is absolutely true. But rather than disprove
each of his opinions individually, Descartes attacks the principles
that support everything he believes with his Method of Doubt. The
Method of Doubt is Descartes' method of fundamental questioning in
which he doubts everything that there is the slightest reason to
doubt. It should be mentioned that Descartes does not necessarily
believe that everything he doubts is true. He does believe,
however, that whatever can not be doubted for the slightest reason
must be true.
Descartes spends Meditation One trying to disprove his
fundamental beliefs. First, Descartes doubts that his senses are
generally trustworthy because they are occasionally deceitful (eg.
a square tower may look round from far away). Also, because he
realizes that there are no definitive signs for him to distinguish
being awake from being asleep, he concludes that he can not trust
his judgement to tell him whether he is awake or asleep. But
as...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 01-19-2001
Category: Politics
Words: 870
Pages: 3.48