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Descartes and Thomas Hobbes On The Natural World - College Paper

Descartes and Thomas Hobbes On The Natural World

Rene Descartes concludes that we cannot have knowledge of the natural world unless all our beliefs are based on our own internal consciousness. He contends that no matter how much we see or experience of the natural world we will have better understanding by simply looking inward to our own born intelligence.

...in other words, Descartes is inviting us to accept the assumption that, however extreme our doubts about what exists 'out there', there will be a more fundamental level of certainty, relating to inner consciousness and its contents. (Descartes, 1998, p. 9)

Though out of context Descartes' summation may not seem to be plausible yet within the context of his perception the ...

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1998, p. 51)

In this commonly sited Descartes quote associated with the very ideas at hand sums up his opinion on the issue of perceived versus innate knowledge.

'It does not seem to me that the human mind is capable of conceiving quite distinctly and at the same time both the distinction between mind and body and their union; because to do so, it is necessary to conceive them as a single thing, and at the same time to conceive them as two things, which is self-contradictory ( AT , iii, p.693). (Grene, 1998, p. 19)

The influx of outside influences and the natural over-stimulating effect of to many factors for one individual mind to separate each into its own right, and from its own physical self defines the concepts of his work on knowledge acquisition.

To understand Descartes's arguments (and, later, the comparable arguments of Hobbes), we must remember that the skeptical attack on natural science had emphasized the impossibility of accurate observation of ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 8/24/2016 05:04:40 AM
Category: Philosophy
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 747
Pages: 3

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