1. Descartes -- Meditations One
Charles Manekin
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

2. Modern Philosophy PHIL320
Topics of Discussion
Intellectual Background of 17th Cent. Philosophy
Descartes’ Life and Works
The Meditations, Objections and Responses
Synopsis of Meditation One
Main Arguments
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

3. Revolt Against Aristotelian Explanation
Aristotelian Science: The explanation why a thing is what it is and why it cannot be otherwise
Aristotle’s doctrine of the four causes and the importance of teleology (study of final causes.)
Teleology dovetails nicely with providential deity
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

4. Revolt Against Aristotelian Explanation
Revolt is already in Kepler: mathematicization of the structure of the universe. God creates the universe in accordance with perfect mathematical structures.
Galileo ( ) takes mathematical explanation to extremes; favors geometric over logical (syllogistic) demonstration; analyzes how something moves, not why it moves.
The beginning of mechanistic – efficient -- explanation
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

5. Modern Philosophy PHIL320
Descartes’ Early Life
Born 1596 in La Haye, France, to well-do family
At 10, enrolls in Jesuit College of La Fleche
Years later, he criticizes what he learned, especially scholasticism (medieval Aristotelianism)
Favorite topic: mathematics, but did not understand its potential
Philosophy: full of doubts
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

6. Modern Philosophy PHIL320
Mature Years
Spends most of his adult years in Holland 1628 Rules for the Direction of our Native Intelligence
Begins physical treatise The World in 1629; after condemnation of Galileo, abandons publication in 1633
1637 – Discourse on the Method, with Dioptrics, Meteorology and Geometry. Written in French
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

7. Meditations Concerning First Philosophy
“First Philosophy” means Metaphysics, which deals first and foremost with the existence of God and the immortality of the soul
Published in 1641, with the first six sets of Objections and Replies
Caterus, Mersenne (group of theologians), Hobbes, Anauld, Gassendi, More theologians
1642 – Second edition with Bourdin’s Objections
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

8. Descartes’ later years
1643 – Condemnation of Descartes’ Philosophy at Utrecht.
1644 – Principles of Philosophy published – synthetic, i.e., geometric method. The Meditations followed the analytical method. Synthesis is good for easily comprehended concepts, lines, planes, etc. Not so analysis
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

9. Modern Philosophy PHIL320
The Goal and the Method
The Goal – to set philosophy, and knowledge in general on a sure footing.
Cartesian Foundationalism.
The quest for certainty, in D’s case, indubitability.
The Method – Universal Doubt.
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

10. The Three Stages of Doubt
Preliminary Point: Distinction between doubting the existence of X and the truth of p. D is concerned with both.
Doubt in reliability of senses.
Doubt in the external world.
Doubt in laws of mathematics, logic, etc.
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

11. Doubt Concerning Sense Knowledge
Start with common sense notion that seeing is believing. What I know is through my senses.
The senses sometimes deceive/argument from illusion
Therefore, they are not reliable to determine for us what exists.
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

12. Doubt Concerning Sense Knowledge
Start with common sense notion that seeing is believing. What I know is through my senses.
The senses sometimes deceive/argument from illusion
Therefore, they are not reliable to determine for us what exists.
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

13. Doubt Concerning the External World
Even though the senses deceive, they at least provide evidence for their being some external world.
The dream argument
Therefore, they are not reliable to determine for us that anything exists…since we may be dreaming
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320

14. Doubt Concerning the Structure of Reality
Even if we are dreaming, there is some coherence to our dream. Even if material objects do not exist but are in the mind, at least they conform to the laws of mathematics. In my dreams, 2+1=3.
The Deceiving God or Malicious Demon argument.
12/5/2018
Modern Philosophy PHIL320