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Denying Premise 2- Philosophy - College Paper

Denying Premise 2- Philosophy

The quest to find out who we are, where we came from, where we will go after we die and what, if anything, controls our world has fascinated mankind throughout the centuries. Famous philosophers have devoted their whole lives to developing theories, and yet the closest any have come to success has been to not have their theories disproved. With the knowledge that no theory has been proven to fact, “I don’t know” may be the only true answer to one of civilization’s oldest questions.
The idea that we can never know the answers to these and many other questions leads to the theory of Skepticism. This theory maintains that we must doubt every single one of our empirical beliefs, as they are ...

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chaos and the refusal to accept “I don’t know” as the answer has motivated both scientists and philosophers. Rene Descartes (1596-1650 was one such man. Though brilliant, and the author of Mediations, feared being skeptical of the external world.
Descartes wanted to disprove the skepticism theory. To do so, he first developed two premises for the skepticism theory, and then rejected it by disproving one premise. The first premise is that of Naļve Empiricism. This premise states that all knowledge rests on our perception, our own experiences, and therefore all our knowledge is true. The second premise is the method of Doubt. Descartes claims knowledge is something that is indubitable. That is, for each body of evidence, only one conclusion can be reached. With those two premises, Descartes derives the sub-conclusion that if we do have unique knowledge, then the evidence of our senses must rule out all other possibilities. In short, truth is derived entirely from the ...

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that basic knowledge does not come from experience and perception, but rather by pure and rational thought. Therefore, the power of reason can be used as the foundation of all knowledge. Furthermore, this theory of rationalism and pure thought disproves the Evil Demon theory and supports a God being that is good and true to us humans.
Descartes starts by saying that he has knowledge of himself. He cannot doubt that he has a mind and he believes he is a “thinking thing.” He then states that his ideas of God and a supreme being come from God himself. He doesn’t believe he can develop these ideas by himself. There must be some outside source that allows him to develop such thoughts. ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 3/27/2007 09:32:50 PM
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1703
Pages: 7

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