Philosopher views
Download 5.81 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Contributions to Science
- Summary of Writings and Publications
- Criticism and Conclusion
Divinity of GodBecause Descartes did not devote his research to only one area of scholarship, it is difficult to summarize his philosophy regarding all topics. However, it is possible to develop a cursory summary of some of his better known topics, such as God and science, and to synthesize the process that is called die Cartesian method of philosophy. Descartes held a firm belief in a higher being, namely the Christian God. It was this belief in God that allowed Descartes to create many of his theories. He had no doubt that a benevolent God existed and guaranteed that some beliefs can be relied upon as universally and absolutely true. His reliance on the existence of God has been termed the Divine guarantee of knowledge. For some of Descartes’s critics this absolute belief in God is a contradiction in philosophy because Descartes had no factual basis on which to base this belief. Descartes himself pondered this apparent contradiction. Descartes resolved this dilemma by developing what he believed was a logical conclusion—based mostly on faith. In Descartes’s opinion, God was the embodiment of perfection. Further, God implanted the notion of imperfection in humans, since humans could not possibly know perfection based on experience. Therefore, it was only logical to Descartes that God was the perfect being who created people and who is the measure by which all other comparisons to perfection must be made.3 Contributions to ScienceDescartes used a similarly strong belief in his scientific views. Basically, he felt that it was possible to describe the attributes of the physical world entirely by mathematical physics in a single set of numerical laws. This theory was opposite of the Aristotelian theories that were taught up until the seventeenth-century in Europe. Such scientific theory held that independent sets of natural laws governed the behavior of objects. However, Descartes rejected such explanations for science because they assumed that humans could know for what purpose God had designed and created the world. Descartes applied his radical view of science to a variety of scientific and mathematical topics including analytic geometry, physics, astronomy, meteorology, optics, and physiology. It is probably in the area of physiology that Descartes made some of his most important contributions to science. He laid the foundation for the conception of the human body as a machine whose structure and behavior were to be understood entirely on mechanical principles.4 His greatest treatise on the topic of body and mind can be found in The Passions of the Soul, a book which highlighted his views on physiology. Summary of Writings and PublicationsDescartes was a prolific writer on a variety of topics. The following summaries are offered to provide brief descriptions of some of his more well known works. The English translation of the original title is listed first, with the title in its publication language—either French or Latin—offered in parentheses. Discourse on Method (Diccours de la mthode) Published anonymously in 1637 as three essays, it is widely regarded as one of the classics of French literature. This volume contains an autobiography, sketches of Descartes’s method and metaphysics, examinations of scientific questions (including an account of Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood, which Descartes was among the first to appreciate and to publicize), and a discussion of the conditions and prospects of further progress in the sciences. The World (U Monde) This book presented parts of Descartes’s system of physics and the results of his research in physiology and in embryology. This was an impactful and controversial book that was not published until after his death. Descartes stopped its publication because he feared the repercussions it might have created. He wrote it at the time Galileo was being condemned by the Catholic Church for espousing the Copernican theory of the solar system. Descartes also relied on Copernicus for some of the foundations in this book, and thus he did not want to endure the same fate as Galileo. Meditations Concerning Primary Philosophy (Mediationes de prima philosophia) Many scholars believe this was Descartes most important work. Published in 1641, it established the framework of concepts and the basic assumptions that he believed the progress of science required. It is this book that is frequently analyzed and used to demonstrate Descartes’s philosophy. Principles of Philosophy (Principia philosophiae) This full account of Descartes’s philosophical and scientific views was published in Latin in 1644. However, it did not receive the positive reaction he had hoped for among the religious authorities—both Catholic and Protestant It was a disappointment to Descartes that eventually many of his books were later placed on the Catholic Church’s list of banned materials.
This was Descartes’s last book which was written in 1649. Considered by many scientists to be a groundbreaking volume, it dealt mainly with psychology, ethics and the relationship between mind and body. Criticism and ConclusionEmpiricists provided some of the harshest criticism of Descartes, especially John Locke, George Berkely and David Hume. These men argued that experience is the sole source of knowledge and reason is only the means for productive manipulation of experiential knowledge. Among contemporary philosophers, the group labeled ‘Post-modernists” offer theories that contradict Descartes. As was stated above, Descartes was an objectivist. Conversely, some Post-modernists like Foucault are constructivists. Foucault believed that the Cartesian explanation of knowledge deriving from a divine source was absurd. While Descartes sought to investigate an objective and independent reality, Foucault believed experience contributed much more to reality and knowledge than Descartes did.5
Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
|