Mind, Matter and Descartes :: Philosophy essays

Mind, Matter and Descartes   Cogito ergo Sum, I think, therefore I am, the epitome of Rene Descartes system of logic. Born in 1596 in La Haye, France, Descartes studied at a Jesuit College, where his acquaintance with the parson and childhood frailty each(prenominal)owed him to lead a leisurely lifestyle. This opulence and deprivation of daily responsibility gave him the liberty to offer his discontentment with both soppy scholasticism, philosophy of the church during the Middle Ages, as well as complete skepticism, the doctrine that absolute knowledge is impossible. Through the most innovative logic since Aristotles death, as well as application of the sciences, he pursued a lifelong quest for scientific truth.   Philosophy is believed to have begun in the sixth century in ancient Greece. In fact, the word philosophy is the classical term for love of wisdom (Pojman). After notable minds of the Ancient valet de chambre such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, by mo dernist standards, original thinking ceased for m either centuries. passim the following period, subsequently known as the Middle Ages, the world was prevail by dogma of the Catholic Church. Scholasticism allied with severe punishment for heresy prevented rationalization outside of religion. Descartes was the first to bring philosophy to its spiritual rebirth (Strathern 7-9). He questioned the reality of everything, including God. Though he was a devout Catholic, and later proved the existence of God mathematically, he founded and popularized the concept of questioning that which is taught.   Descartes philosophy was an attempt to create a genuine foundation upon which further scientific developments would be established. His devotion to maths methodic nature and invariability lead him to apply these concepts to all other ideas. He hypothesized that those propositions which one could come to understand completely would be self evident, since ones knowledge about them would not depend upon knowledge of any other propositions therefore they were suitable to stand as fundamental assumptions, to be the starting points from which other propositions could be deduced (Walting).   He realized that he knew aught for certain except for the fact that he was thinking, which proved that he existed Cogito ergo Sum. Descartes argues that all ideas that are as forgive and distinct as the Cogito essential be true, for, if they were not, then Cogito also, as a member of the class of clear and distinct ideas, could be doubted (Walting). Descartes theorized that each person has an innate idea of a perfect being.