"well ...Descartes believed that everything should be questioned ...that is, approached with doubt. And if you could find one thing that cannot be false, that one thing would serve as a foundation for all other knowledge claims.So, unlike John Locke, Descartes doubts that knowledge comes ...
Harry Frankfurt has argued that Descartes's madness doubt in the First Meditation is importantly different from his dreaming doubt. The madness doubt does not provide a reason for doubting the senses since were the meditator to suppose he was mad his ability to successfully complete the philosophic...
On the other hand, René Descartes believed that bias can only be avoided by rationality (rationalism).19 Both philosophers hoped that scientists put aside their prejudice and metaphysical ideas to conduct their analyses, but unfortunately this is not possible. Each one of our interpretations is ...
Although this ideal world is a metaphysical idea that has not been realized anywhere, it has had a tremendous historical impact. Most philosophers and scientists after Galileo and Descartes have taken it to be the real world, which implies that everything that happens, “at the bottom” is gov...
Today’s landscape is much different – all the low hanging fruit is good. A breakthrough in any field requires exclusive preparation in that field; even experts don’t know everything about their field. So it’s important to maintain a skeptical point of view and think like an outsider. ...
“Tell to God, even if it seems that one is talking just to the air, that one does not believe but is willing to believe if He will only do something to prove Himself.” This seems to be a way of setting yourself up to be fooled into accepting literally any evidence. Traffic lights...
Was this withdrawal-into-self not accomplished by Descartes in his universal doubt and reduction to cogito, which, as Derrida points out in his “Cogito and the history of madness,”[1] also involves a passage through the moment of radical madness? Are we thus not back at the well-known ...
To put my confusion another way, free will is impossible if everything is deterministic, but it’s also impossible if non-determinism exists (which it does, due to QM) because it would “just” be random. I actually don’t see the problem with having random free will – it’s better ...
Another philosopher,Benedict Spinozaquestioned Descartes’ idea. Spinoza realized that the brain does not process ideas the way that Descartes proposed. He suggested that,“people believe every assertion they understand but quickly ‘unbelieve’ those assertions that are found to be at odds with other...
René Descartes said “I think, therefore I am”. Modern neurobiology says: “I feel, therefore I am.” Rituals strengthen the bonds of human communities. Hand-shaking and saying hello are rituals. Religions offer rituals. Cultures offer rituals. Why do some people not believe? Well, they ...