discourse and meditation

Through out the Discourse and Meditation, theres alot of questions on doubt and the existence of God. Descartes says that God is the creator of everything we see but at the same time, he kind of doubts the existence of God. How do we know he really does exist? He is known to have the superior power, no man is more powerful or perfect than God. The fact that we are able to reason, think and perceive, we exist, and our existence is devoted to God. Descartes writes alot of things that can be controversial, but the main subject that i'm concerned with throught out both the discourse and the meditations, is God's existence because Descartes argues that God is the reason for our mind and body and so on but at the same time theres doubt. How do we know whats in doubt and whats not? Theres so many questions to ask but who has the answers?

mediation 1 repsonse 2 GOD

"...there is fixed in my mind a certain opinion of long standing, namely that there exsists a God who is able to do anything and by whom I, such as I am, have been created."

Descartes re-establishes himself from what was said in his discourse. He still does believe that a God in some form exsists, that God created mankind. He believes that God is still able to do anything. He explains that how does anyone actually know he did not create the heavnes, the earth, size, shape and places?

Mediation 1 response

"...I see so plainly that there are no definitive signs by which to distinquish being awake from being asleep"

Descartes tries to explain that when we dream, we take everyday objects that we see from our very eyes, and incorperat them in our dreams. He says that alone makes it very difficult when we sleep to tell if we are indeed dreaming or not. Its obvious that dreams arn't real, but when in the state of slumber, its taken for granted that it is indeed being acted out in real life.

meditation 1 continued....paragraph 21

In paragraph 21, Descartes talks about the existence of God and how he is able to do anthing.

"How do i know that he did not bring it about that there is no earth at all, no heavens, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, and yet bringing it all about that all these things appear to me to exist precisely as they do now?"

Basically Descartes is doubting the fact that God created all these things that we see upon us. How do we no that there was no such thing as earth or heavens and that God created them? This may be the biggest doubt that Descartes has spoke about in the Meditations. If he believes that God is the creater of everything, why is he doubting it now?

".......be deceived every time I add two plus three or count the sides of a square, or perform an even simpler operation, if that can be imagined?"

In this quote, he imagines being deceived by simple things as two plus three or a square having only four sides. With this he explains how God is good and he shall not deceive him in such a way.

meditation 1 continued

".....and even if it is n0t within my power to know anything true, it certaintly is within my power to take care resolutely to withhold my assent to what is false......"

This quote ties to God and how he has the superior power of all. In this statement, Descartes says that we can't over power God because his power is the most powerful and clever. Although we may not have his power, we do have the power to agree with what is false. Even though many of us are deceived everyday in many different ways, we do not know the truth to everything, but one thing we should know is how to distinguish between truth and false.

I agree with Descartes when he says that we have the power of knowing whats false because like he says, there are just some things that no matter if we are awake or asleep, we know that they are true, For example, like i posted earlier, 2 + 2 = 4 and a square only has 4 sides. Things as simple as that we know are not false and we can prove it. It's not something that we need science for, these are things that are logic and are the way they are because thats how it was meant to be.

"...lest this deceiver, however powerful, however clever he may be, have any effect on me."

No matter how we are deceived, we should never let that affect us.

meditation 1: doubt

"But on what grounds could one deny that these hands and this entire body are mine?"

In paragraph 19, Descartes describes how even though our senses can deceive us, there are such senses that cannot be put into doubt. For instance, that our body are real and not something that can be questioned as, are these hands real? or is it just an illusion? There are things that cannot be called into doubt, such as 2 + 2 is 4. We know thats a fact because there is no way around it. Something as simple as that cannot deceive us in any way.

Later on in the paragraph, Descartes starts to distinguish the difference from being awake and asleep. How do we know that we are not dreaming, that we really are awake? With that in mind, for the sake of argument, as he says, let us assume that our hands, eyes, and other parts of the body are just images. But how can they be not true if such bodies are on paintings. Paintings cannot be false, it has to be true. Therefore, our hands and eyes cannot just be images.

I think that Descartes is not trying to doubt that our bodies are images or any like, i think that he is trying to convince us that whether we are awake or asleep, simple things as our bodies, shapes and simple math equations, are true no matter what and should not be put into doubt because the way we are and how a square can only have 4 sides, is all created by God. Yes sometimes our senses are deceived and people can deceive us but that does not mean that everything that comes from the same senses should be put into doubt. God created things the way they are because that's how he wanted them to be. He doesn't want us to be deceived by everything because God is good and he wouldn't do such a thing. This whole doubt thing, in my opinion is just another form of Descartes showing that God does exist and that he is good, and that should not be doubted.

Discourse on Method-Section 5-Continued-My Response to Humans and Animals Similarities and Differences

Continuing Section 5, Descartes also makes similarities and differences betweeen animals and humans, through their respiratory system. He goes on to describe how blood flows through the vena cava, and blood flowing through the heart, and he compares the flowing of blood throughout the body through the veins as trees with limbs, he later on goes to describe the differences between the flowing of blood through humans and the flowing of blood through the animals, and the similarities that animals and humans have in the way of senses. However, Descarte mentions that were are the complete same as the animals, but some animals have the skills as such Humans. My response to this part of the section is that Descarte is right. My reasons for saying he is right because some of the things he says about animals and humans having some of the same skill is because of animals and humans having a machine and our machines sometimes working in the same way.I found another similiarity is that Animals and Humans are similar because they both work on clocks, however animals work on the clock of nature, and we work on the clock of time, however, we still work on the clock of nature as well, if I can use the phrase "biological clocks." Although, section 5 was difficult to interpret in my opinion I enjoyed reading Descarte conceptions on the body of the universe, the body of animals, and human beings.

Discourse on Method-Section 5-My Response to Descarte describing the Importance of Nature

Through Section 5 in Descartes Discourse on Method, Descarte first discusses the significance of Astronomy, the Universe, and nature. Descarte mentions even though if there was chaos in the world, nature and the Universe would still work in the same way in my opinion. Descarte describes the earth and how perfected the Earth is through God. He mentions how the separation from the seas to the land, the mountains to the air, and the importance of FIRE, how it can be a guidance of light, the way it can be used to have heat, how it make objects such as glass, and makes different colors. Out of Section 5, I was most amazed of Descarte's interpretation of fire, he explained the concept very well. What phrase stood out to me was "how it was made. how it is nourished, how sometimes it has only heat but no light, and sometimes only light but no heat, how it can introduce various colors, and various other qualities into various bodies; how it melts some bodies, and hardens others; how it can consume nearly all of them or turn them into ashes and smoke."

Discourse part 5 cont.

To go into further detail about how Rene Descartes feels about God, he mentions that the body has a soul. He believes in the afterlife, and that after someone dies, the soul moves on and leaves the body. The soul is therefore immortal, and cannot die.

The 2nd half of part 5 of the discourse deals with a few things about the human body. The book explains how blood flows throughout the body. It explains that the reason one side of the heart chambers are smaller because there is no oxygen in them, and are therefore thinner. The book explains how man vs beasts are different. He goes into detail that even though beasts may have some of the same organs we have, they use them differently enough to seperate us from them. He ends part 5 of the discourse mentioning that only a God could have created us seperate from beasts, so he reasons that there is indeed a God.

discourse on method part 5 continued

Paragraph 42, 43 and 44.

.....because light proceeds almost entirely from them.....

In this paragraph Descartes speaks about light. He points out that light comes from the sun, the stars, heaven,plants, comets and earth. The sun, stars, and heaven transmit light; planets, comets, and earth reflect light, and all of this is observed by man. In respect to the light, Descartes believes that there should be nothing about this matter observed by man. He felt that his explanation of where light comes from was sufficient to know that that is something man can not interfere with. Furthermore, he then speaks about earth and how the movements of the sun, heaven and moon have something to do with there being water and air on the surface. He then explains how this is all part of nature.

Many may argue Descartes on his explanations of light and nature while others may agree with him. I in the other hand would be one of those people who agrees with him. I believe nature is something that no man can interfere with. Such things as light, air and water happens naturally. I do believe it has something to do with the sun and all other elements outside of earth.

discourse on method sec.5

In part 5 of discourse on method, paragraph 57, Descartes talks about how there is no machine better than that of the human body.

.......if there were any such machines that bore a resemblance to our bodies and imitated our actions as far as this is practically feasible........they were not at all, for that reason, true men.

Descartes is trying to say that there is no machine created better than the human body. He argues that the machine may perform many tasks better but lack in other areas. The key to a great machine is reason; perfection is reason. The best part of man is that we have reasoning. We are able to express our selves in many ways and we are able to understand each other and communicate. He also argues that yes animals have similiar organs as we do but they lack reason. They are better at certain things than man because thats how their organs function, not because they are intelligent.

I agree with Descartes point of view. Yes animals can perform some task better than man but they lack reason and the ability to speak. As he points out, some animals like parrots and monkeys can be trained to speak and utter some words but they cannot carry on a conversation or communicate with man. If animals were to be understood by man, then reality would be that they would be better machines than us. But since they lack reasoning, there is no machine better than the human body.