Descartes' Method Of Doubt Explained Simply - Cultural Reader

Pages

• Home
• Thinkers
• Topics
• Article Summaries
• Book Summaries
• Explained & Defined

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Descartes' method of doubt explained simply

In the philosophy of René Descartes, the method of doubt (or Cartesian doubt, Descartes' Doubt or methodical doubt) is a way of seeking certainty by systematically doubting everything. Descartes decided on this method of doubt after confronting the many and endless discussions held by the traditional scholastics , which seemed to yield no results. Descartes saw the cause in the fact that no undoubted certainties had yet been found in philosophy on which to build. Descartes proposed to move on to a methodical doubt , ie to doubt everything that could possibly be doubted, even the scientific insights of the time and the Holy Scriptures. If you leave out everything that can be doubted, you are left with only that which is necessarily true, according to Descartes.In summary, the method of doubt is a central element in René Descartes' philosophy and is divided into segments, summarized by the statement: 'initially nothing is certain'. According to Descartes, there is always doubt about the authenticity of sensory perceptions, for which he uses the example of optical illusions in his work Méditation métaphysique . In addition, there is also a hyperbolic doubt : the doubt, which previously related to what was observed, in Descartes reaches all aspects of reality, including abstract concepts and mathematical truths. This thought process eventually led Descartes to an absolute knowledge, the cogito. Among other things, it enabled him to demonstrate, empirically rather than logically, the existence of human freedom.see also: Meditations on First Philosophy - summaryBooks by and on René Descartes - Recommanded Reading List at October 02, 2021 Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: explanation, philosophy, Rene Descartes, summary Newer Post Older Post Home

Search This Blog

Popular Posts

• Summary: Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception by Adorno and Horkheimer "Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" is a chapter in Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's book "Dialectic...
• Summary: Chapter 1 of Gender Trouble by Judith Butler GENDER TROUBLE/CHAPTER 1: SUBJECTS OF SEX/GENDER/DESIRE        1.       “Women” as the Subject of Feminism Judith Butler  begins ...
• Clifford Geertz's "Thick Description" explained (summary) One of the pivotal concepts in Clifford Geertz's anthropological theory is "Thick Description". Geertz asserts that the fu...
• Distinction / Bourdieu - Summary and Overview Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979) is a sociological study by Pierre Bourdieu on culture and taste in France, t...
• Summary: Is There a Text in This Class? / Stanley Fish - part 1 Stanley Fish's "Is There a Text in This Class?" is a classic account on the nature of linguistic utterance and the scope of...
• Short summary: The Laugh of the Medusa / Helene Cixous In the landmark essay, "The Laugh of the Medusa", feminist philosopher Helene Cixous explores the subject of feminine writing ....
• Gayatri Spivak / "Can the Subaltern Speak?" – summary The essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988) by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak relates to the manner in which western cultures invest...
• Best examples of locutionary acts A locutionary act , or a locutionary speech act in JL Austin’s definition, is the part of an utterance which is the thing which is actually ...
• Stuart Hall: "Notes on Deconstructing 'The Popular'" –summary The first part of Stuart Hall's "Notes on Deconstructing 'The Popular'" is an historical account of the developme...
• Hannah Arendt On Violence - summary and review Hannah Arendt's book On Violence is an investigation into the nature, reasons and extent of violence from the 1950s to the present day. ...