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Meditation 3 Lecture Clear amp Distinct Ideas
>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=V92pen1Njv0
Descartes argues from his mind's existence, actions contents, to a standard for certainty • Descartes playlist: • Descartes • 0:00 Concering God, that He exists • 1:00 I am certain that I am a thinking thing • 1:20 I also know what is required for certainty • 2:10 Clear distinct ideas are true • Part of a lecture given 9/19/2018 to my PHIL 203 course • #Philosophy #Descartes #Meditation3 • Music: Among the Clouds, by Darren Curtis • Thumbnail Image: Descartes. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... • Transcript • Meditation Three. First, the title: “Concerning God, That He Exists.” Top of page 70, “I would regard these images as empty, false, and worthless… [pause] I will converse with myself.” That reflection, that reflective method again.“…and look more deeply into myself, I will attempt to render myself gradually better known and more familiar to myself.” So we're still at the stage of self-examination, the only way Descartes thinks we're going to dig our way up out of this pit of the self and get back to the external world is by reflecting upon my mind and the contents of my mind. Those contents can't come from the senses because I'm not trusting the senses yet. They can’t come from memory because I'm not trusting memory yet. They have to come from somewhere else. [pause] • Middle of page 70. [pause] “Now I wonder more carefully whether perhaps there may be other things belonging to me that up till now I have failed to notice. I am certain that I am a thinking thing.” So I’m looking at myself, which means my mind. I know that I'm a thinking thing, • and insofar as I think, I know that I exist. I know that I'm a thinking substance, a thinking thing. What else do I know? “Do I therefore not also know what is required for me to be certain of anything?” I also know… So here I am, I'm lonely, I’m inside mu own mind, I’ve given up my senses, • I’ve descended into the cogito, into the “I think,” and now what do I have? Well, I exist. I know that I exist, and that I’m a thinking substance. I also know that I'm certain of these. And I'm aware of the fact that I'm certain of these. Which means I must have an idea of certainty. I must have an idea of certainty, which allows me to conclude that I am certain. That's interesting. I wasn’t aware of that. • I thought it was just me. It turns out I have, sort of preloaded into my mind [pause] this software, this conceptual apparatus for determining certainty. “Truly in this first instance of knowledge, there is nothing but a certain clear and distinct perception of what I affirm. Yet that would hardly be enough to render me certain if it could ever happen that something I perceive so clearly and distinctly were false. Thus…” This is the answer the first question, his rule. “…I now seem able to posit as a general rule that everything I clearly distinctly perceive is true.” What is it that I know? I know I'm certain of these things. Wait a minute, what does certainty consist in? Well, the only thing about these that distinguishes them is that they’re clearly and distinctly known to me. They’re clearly present in my mind. That must be what the standard of certainty is. So his rule is: Any clear and distinct idea must be true and certain. He’s giving himself the tools at this point to begin his return to the objective world, the physical world.
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