Descartes Locke And Hume Essay Research Paper

Descartes, Locke, And Hume Essay, Research Paper

Knowledge is said to be the relationship between a person and the world. While most philosopher agree with this basic definition, most all of them disagree about the fundamental nature of that relationship. Ren Descartes, John Locke, and David Hume have three distinct epistemic systems that all address the idea of knowledge and what it is. Ren DescartesRen Descartes was born in France in 1596. He is considered to be the father of modern philosophy. He saw a need for a coherent philosophical system so he decided to build one from the ground up. In 1641, he published Meditations on the First Philosophy in which he concerns himself with the question of what is certain knowledge and with the question of what is the relationship between the mind and body. Descartes was also a great mathematician and thought that he could use the process of mathematical method, mainly reason, to answer these questions concerning philosophical truths. In Meditation One, Descartes attempts to doubt everything in order to establish a firm foundation for knowledge. He reveals his most important doubtcaster to the principal that his senses provide him with the clearest access to truth. This is the evil demon doubtcaster. He gives credence to the possibility that he is being deceived all the time by “an evil genius, supremely powerful, and clever, who has directed his entire life at deceiving” him. (Descartes p.16) He brings in the possibility that our creator is inherently evil and has created a false world in which we all dwell, or believe we dwell. He finds it plausible that we are all living in a dream and we have never experienced reality. He can no longer give any credence to his senses and finds himself in a place of complete uncertainty. In Meditation Two, Descartes is trying to establish that the human mind is better known than the human body. The initial problem is that the only thing he knows for certain is that nothing is certain, therefor his first goal is to find just one thing that is certain. At one point he asks, “am I so tied to a body and to the senses that I can not exist without them.” He persuades himself that there is nothing in the universe and that therefore he himself does not exist. He comes to the conclusion that if he persuades himself of this (or the evil demon persuades him of this) then he necessarily exists. There is no doubt that he exists if he is being deceived. If the evil demon is deceiving him, then he exists because the evil demon cannot deceive something that does not exist.The problem that he is faced with now is that he has to show how you get from an inner truth (I seem to see light) to an external truth (I see light). This means that he will have to get his body back. To accomplish this he considers a physical piece of wax even though the evil demon might be deceiving him. At this point the piece of wax has a honey flavor, and it has the sent of flowers. It has a color, and a distinct shape and size. It is hard and cold and if you rap on it will emit a sound. He then put the piece of wax next to a fire which melts the wax and in turn, changes its contingent qualities. The wax no longer tastes of honey or smells of flowers. The original shape disappears and its size increases. It becomes a hot liquid you can hardly touch. And if you rap on it no sound is emitted. It looks, tastes, smells, feels, and sounds completely different from the original piece of wax. Each of the sensory qualities have changed or been transformed, yet the same piece of wax remains. After you remove everything that does not belong to the wax, it is precisely something extended, flexible, and mutable. If you ignore the senses, the wax is still wax; but if you focus on the accidental qualities, the two pieces of wax have nothing in common. This means that you cannot look to the senses for truth about physical objects. The wax is capable of innumerable changes even though the imagination is not capable of relating them, therefore this insight is not achieved by the faculty of imagination. Descartes concedes that he does not grasp what this wax is through the imagination, but rather perceives it through the mind alone. His imagination gives him finite pictures whereas the wax is infinite. When he distinguishes the wax from its external forms there might be an error in his judgment, but it is definite that he cannot perceive it without a human mind. If he judges that the wax exists from the fact that he sees it, then from the same fact that he sees the wax, it is much more evident that he himself exists. It is possible that what he sees is not wax at all, but it is impossible that while he sees or thinks he sees, he who thinks is not something. If he thinks or senses or imagines, then he and the nature of his mind necessarily exist.At the end of the Meditation Two, Descartes comes to the conclusion that nothing can be perceived more easily and more evidently than his own mind. He has discovered that even bodies are not accurately perceived by the senses or the faculty of imagination, and are only accurately being perceived by the intellect. He also realizes that they are not distinguished through being touched, smelled, or tasted, but by being understood alone. It is the faculty of reason that gives the knowledge and lets the mind know the truths and essences of objects. John Locke John Locke was born in England in 1632. He is considered to be the foundi