Descartes and Buddies

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Descartes and Buddies

• To be or not to be, that is the question

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As the world shifts
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Contradictions

• Carpe diem
• (seize the day)
• Momento mori
• (remember you must die)
• Based on the concept that life is brief

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Life is a Theater, therefore, Shakespeare

• All the worlds a stage/And all the men and women
  merely players/They have their exits and their
  entrances/And one man in his time plays many
  parts. As You Like It

• Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player/That
  struts and frets his hour upon the stage,/And
  then is heard no more it is a tale/Told by an
  idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying
  nothing. Macbeth

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If it isnt a stage, what is it?
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We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our
little life is rounded with a sleep
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Idealism and materialism

• IDEALISM
• Some philosophers believed that all that exists
  is, at bottom, spiritual in nature

• MATERIALISM
• Others believed that all real things come from
  concrete material substancesparticles of matter
  (even the soul starts with movement of tiny
  particles in the brain)

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Motion Wins

• Newton applied motion to all changes on earth and
  in space principles of universal gravitation
  and the motion of bodies
• Everything was thus governed by the same
  unbreakable laws (mechanisms).
• Possible to calculate every natural change with
  mathematical precision.

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The world as a machine

• If so, then everything that happens is
  predetermined (Its written in the stars)
• Bye-bye free will
• Everything is a product of mechanical processes,
  even our thoughts and dreams

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Enter Rene Descartes

• He was convinced that knowledge is attainable
  only through reason
• Cant trust old information
• Cant trust senses
• Can this be Plato again?
• Long live the rationalists.

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If nothing is true, what do you do?

• Come up with the new philosophical system that
  will direct the world from this moment forward.
• How about two questions
• What can we know? (certain knowledge)
• What is the relationship between body and mind?

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Skepticism

• Is it true that we know nothing? Skeptics
  thought so.
• But Descartes thought If natural sciences
  develop a method to provide exact descriptions of
  natural sciences, why cant philosophy?
• The big question In a mechanistic view, whats
  the relationship between the body and the soul?

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The Soul

• Before the 17th century
• Soul was breath of life
• Pervaded all living creatures
• Soul and spirit meant breath or breathing
• Aristotle saw soul everywhere as the life
  principlecould not be separate from the body

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Big Question

• If the body is a machine, surely the soul could
  not be part of this body machinery.
• WHAT IS THE SOUL, THEN?

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Mind / Body

• I decide to lift my arm
• I decide to run for the bus
• I think of something sad

• The arm lifts itself
• My legs start moving
• I start crying

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Discourse on Method

• We cannot accept anything as being true unless we
  can clearly perceive it
• Break down compound problem into as many single
  factors as possible
• Point of departure comes in simplest idea of all
• Philosophy should go from the simple to the
  complex
• Ensure new insight with constant vigilance
  (mathematical in model)

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Doubt everything

• When we dream, we feel that we are experiencing
  reality
• When I consider this carefully, I find not a
  single property which with certainty separates
  the waking state from the dreamhow can you be
  certain that your whole life is not a dream?
  Descartes

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The only truth that Descartes doubted
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Cogito, ergo sum
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What else is true?

• Descartes concluded that in his mind was a clear
  idea of a perfect entity. Hed always had this
  idea, so it clearly did not come from himself,
  since he was imperfect. Therefore, the idea of a
  perfect entity must have originated from that
  perfect entity itself God. Gods existence,
  then, was as self evident as his own thinking.