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Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes. Life Overview. French Attended Jesuit college of La Fleche Concluded only math yields certainty Law degree Wrote book about physics but feared church. Rationalism. Reason as the source for knowledge Used “systematic doubt”--skepticism

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Rene Descartes

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  1. Rene Descartes

  2. Life Overview French Attended Jesuit college of La Fleche Concluded only math yields certainty Law degree Wrote book about physics but feared church

  3. Rationalism Reason as the source for knowledge Used “systematic doubt”--skepticism Prior to and independent of senses (which can be deceived) Goals: • Sought “certainty” and felt all teaching were currently based on shaky foundations • Sought principles or starting points from which all answers could be deduced

  4. Descartes’s 4 Rules • Never accept anything except for clear and distinct ideas • Divide each problem into as many parts as are needed to solve it • Order your thoughts from the simple to the complex • Always check thoroughly for oversights

  5. Doubt and the Evil Demon Everything cast into doubt by the demon Could there be a powerful demon of utmost power set on deceiving you? Thus, is there anything that cannot be doubted? Doubting or affirming something is itself evidence of existence Even a doubting being must exist to doubt I think therefore I am

  6. Question If modern man is resistant to a “evil demon” what might this idea look like today? Brain in a Vat

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