Friday, November 13, 2009
Skepticism for kids
Descartes' language is sometimes difficult to understand but his argument is straightforward. Rewrite a version of the first meditation. Use the language that a New York City teenager might use to make the same point. (Feel free to you slang, abbreviations, etc. but make sure it's appropriate and doesn't use swear words!) Make sure that you follow Descartes' argument carefully. (Don't leave out any of the steps in the outline.)
5 comments:
Although I have messed up before, I will forget the opinions that I've had so that I could finally know what I know. I will forget about anything that is not 100% true. We know things because we can see, hear, and touch them. But we have been lied to. You cannot rely on them no more.
We cannot base things off of whatever. What we needa do is find the best possible example of things.
But when I dream it is like I'm awake. It feels just the same as when I am awake. Am I dreaming right now!?!?!
There are things that are the same in my waking life and dreams. Therefore I will make pretend that I am dreaming as I type this.
santiljan vukaj
Descartes sees knowledge as certainty
He searches for this certainty by isolating himself, and discarding everything he is uncertain of, leaving only things that he is undoubtedly certain of.
He says that the senses are needed for our mind to recognize objects, which initially seems true. No one can disagree that they can see red, because they can sense red. The problem however with the senses is that the senses can deceive us. Descartes brings up the example of a dream, what if we at this very moment were dreaming,( In fact I just was dreaming 15 minutes ago before I woke up remembering this blog post). We can only be sure of things such as math and colors in dreams, 2+2 will always equal 4, and red will always look red.
Descartes then makes a drastic step in saying that we can’t know anything, including math. He uses the case of an evil genius. This hypothetical genius will be omnipotent, or all knowing, and all powerful, whose sole purpose, will be deceiving us, through our senses. Descartes defends this evil genius idea, by stating that he doesn't know for sure that this genius doesn't exist, so he for now, he has to accept the fact that it might. In this hypothetical situation, we couldn't be certain about anything when it really equals G? This ties back to Descartes statement that knowledge is certainty, if cannot be sure about anything then we can not claim know anything.
Descartes first meditation…, simply yet articulately conveyed
ight so This descartes dude is some hardcore thinker. He is saying that with all the...stuff he did before, hes gona forget it all. All the past is gona be erased from him. He does this because not everything is true. In fact maybe nothing is true at all. But who cares right? Well apparently this dude does.
At first he argues that only the most basic things can be trusted. none of that hard stuff like astronomy and physics. Only easy stuff that is mad pure like the simple crap we did in like 1st and second grade. Simple stuff like the trippy colors we always knew and simple math that we know are always gona be true no matter what. Even in our dreams these simple stuff is all gona be one simple thing with one awenser that we know.
Now this dude brings in a concept of some evil genius. This dude is mad smart. This EG is like controlling us and doing stuff to us to make us see true lies. He acts through out senses to like make us see what things are lies of the world and makes us wonder if true things are really true. This makes it possible for us to not ever know anything again. Damn that be tight.
All that labour of learning and just to realize it is all a like a huge lie is OD depressing. In other words...this is new logic to use in arguments...Dnt ya love Descartes?
Re: Andy Lu's Post
I really like your post, you got down all of the major points simplistically, and accurately in four easy paragraphs. Your concept of "true lies" was a really unique one...something that we KNOW is 100 percent true, could really be a 100 percent lie. I also agree with you that people like astronomers would be really bummed, to hear any of this, after studying years of complex physics and theory, which regardless of their interest with the universe is destined to become tedious. But i however, believe that we, junior philosophers should be thrilled about our ignorance. We have to knowledgeable about our ignorance before we can, truly be genius's. Better said, its not about what you think you know, but what you know that you don't know.
so yeah Descaryes is basically tryin o say that there are no certain things in the world other than that statement. He knows this after thinking for over like a day and realizes that knowledge is unclear due to the fact that it could be lies. so he gets all scared and wants to forget it. so he tries to go back to the beginning. He wants to get rid a wateva attaches him to this false world. He does this and comes to a conclusion that if he is a mind he must exist but if so what is he? The only answer is that he is what he is. That is the only answer that doesnt derive out of false likelyhoods.
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