In Meditations Descartes states that he’s going to doubt everything he knows from the ground up and reevaluate his opinions and knowledge base. But in the first meditation he states a number of things that are true (God is omnipotent and would never deceive him) (Squares have 4 sides) etc. How can Descartes say these things are true even though he has just said his senses have deceived him and that he needs to doubt everything
Posted Jan 30, 2020, 9:49 AM UTC
This sounds much like a homework question. If that's the case, please give us your provisional answer so we may help you work through it.
Actually its not haha the only assignment so far is to read the first 3 Meditations. I finished those three and currently am on the fourth. It's very interesting so far and it's nice to finally read the explanation behind the cogito. Its a required text for my semester class
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u/dombag12 this is the only correct answer here. If I had to expand, Descartes does this constantly, he doubted something but then he brings it back. In Meditation II, he finds the intuition that I am, I exist; then he asks, "but what am I?" and inmediately brings back the aristotelian definition (rational/political animal), only to toss it out again. Med III does this again with the "certainty" that there are things outside of him, etc.
What is his purpose of bringing up things to just immediately doubt them? Simply to reinforce the fact that he's eliminating all of his prior beliefs?
He brings them up on one side, so that the reasons for doubting are clear : "hey you know how we say that the sun is small but it is actually enormous?"; And on the other side, because he is systematic: pay attention every time he finds something certain: he inmediately brings back up things to see if they work. As soon as he discovers the cogito, he brings up the aristotelian Definition of man.
Remember that he does not want to destroy all knowledge; he wants firm foundations. Euclid was probably right, but he stands on fragile ground
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