Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes masterpiece conveys his will to erase all the previous beliefs and principles that was instilled in him during his childhood and start on a clean slate. ... In Meditation on First Philosophy, Descartes argues many points from his existence to all the false beliefs and ideas he had accepted from childhood. ... The following are the three examples he mentions in Meditations on First Philosophy: 1. ... The first thing he is sure of is his existence. ... I feel that the opening statement of his Meditations on First Philosophy was very powerful. ...

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• Grade Level: High School

The foundation of Descartes argument is based on the first person narrative style of his Meditations on First Philosophy. ... As soon as Descartes creates the basis of his argument he can make more inferences as he moves on to different meditations. ... This is his first method of doubt. ...

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Finally, after traveling all over Europe, Descartes decided to end his travels and reside in Holland in 1628 where he began to write his three famous books, Discourse on Method, Meditations on First Philosophy and Principles of Philosophy where his passion for philosophy and mathematics could shine. In my term paper, I will be focusing on specific passages from Meditations on First Philosophy, which was written in 1641. Meditations on First Philosophy is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is real. ... Descartes' focus in Meditations is absolute certainty. ... To this day, he is ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Descartes" method of doubt is located in his first meditation in which he is concerned to put forward a series of sceptical arguments relating to past experiences and issues dealing with mathematical knowledge. ... From the beginning of the first meditation Descartes indicates that he will in fact attack his own opinions through attacking his own "principles" on which they are based. ... Descartes philosophy brought into context how first principles should be rejected and new ones to be focused upon. The first objection towards Descartes philosophy is the reason why an individual must dis...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Descartes himself described Meditations as being a philosophy much like a tree. ... In Meditation One Descartes flooded his mind with doubt. On page 17 of Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes says " it was necessary.. to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last." ... Conventional wisdom then that the body is easier to understand than the mind is in error, therefore doubt about opinions is the first step to building a reliable body of knowledge. ... Descar...

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Descartes Existence of God Rene Descartes lived from 1596-1650; he was a rationalist who wrote a book named, Meditations on First Philosophy. ... He first said an idea must have a cause, next he said that the cause must be as real as the effect of the cause. ... Descartes presupposition is that everyone who reads his meditations is people who believe in the existence of God and that he is perfect. ... Hume Descartes lived from 1596-1650; he was a rationalist who wrote a book named Meditations on First Philosophy. ... In his first meditation, Descartes challenged the idea of certainty. ...

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Rene Descartes, in his first meditation, tells us that everything in this world is dubious and that we cannot rely on our senses/perceptions. ... In meditation three Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God. ... His first is that, "All the things we perceive (sensible things) are ideas in our minds." ... Russell tries to make a distinction between "appearance" and "reality", which he says is the most trouble in philosophy. ... (Marx Philosophy 121)...

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The success of his attempt to achieve certainty can be analysed in relation to how far he overcomes the universal doubt he has introduced in the first meditation. ... In the second meditation, he appears to define thinking in terms of all conscious acts when he describes a thing that thinks as "a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling and also imagines and has sensory perceptions". ... However, as he asserts in the first meditation, it is not the case to believe that "I have sensory perceptions" necessarily makes it a true belief. ... Thus Descartes is unable...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

When looking and examining both Plato and Descartes method of philosophy, we can see that both had similarities and differences to their approach. ... We also see the belief that the mind and body are separate come to life with Descartes after reading Meditation Two. ... First he argues that we have an idea of God and second being that the only way to have an idea of God is if God exists. ... After evaluating each of these arguments of knowing the absolute truth, I come to see myself favoring the philosophies of Plato. ...

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Matrix The Matrix In viewing the Matrix, a 1999 Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow Picture release, there are numerous references to philosophy portrayed in the movie. ... According to Descartes" Meditation on methodic doubt he tries to achieve absolute certainty about the nature of everything. In order to acquire absolute certainty, Descartes must first lay a complete foundation of integrity on which to build up his knowledge. ... In regards to the meditations Morpheus is telling Neo that the world that he lives in is merely a false idea and should be doubted. ... The Matrix refers to many ...

• Word Count: 1020
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In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes attempts to establish a new method of obtaining knowledge where he only accepts beliefs as true if they are beyond possible doubt. ... Descartes begins to explore his previous belief with "First Mediation: On What Can be Called into Doubt.... In Meditation 2, Descartes seeks to determine what (if anything) can be known beyond any doubt. ... In the Mediations on First Philosophy, Descartes believes he established that God exists as a perfect being but ultimately fails in providing clear and distinct explanations of this truth. ...

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In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke disputes the notion of innate ideas as a response to Cartesian Philosophy. ... In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes argues that ideas such as infinity and God encompass more formal reality than do finite humans. ...

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• Grade Level: High School

In this meditation on his philosophy, Descartes on numerous attempts tries to convince both the readers, as well as himself, of his theory that we must reject all of our present ideas and beliefs and start from nothing. ... At the beginning of meditation two, Descartes is "stuck in the middle of nothingness". ... This is the first accurate idea that Descartes knows with any conviction, he knows that he is a "thinking being". ... In sternly following his philosophies, Descartes must have missed out on many wonderful things in his lifetime. ...

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History is, of course necessary to any understanding of philosophy: how it came about, what people did with it. ... Rather, philosophy should be integrated with the rest of the sciences through the method of rational judgment. Rather than sailing behind, or next to but away from, the rest of the sciences, philosophy should be the flagship of the group. ... Descartes was the first to bring philosophy to its "renaissance." ... In this meditation on his philosophy, Descartes on numerous attempts tries to convince both the readers, as well as himself, of his theory that we must reject all of ...

• Word Count: 2227
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate