Descartes and Meditations on Philosophy essays

Descartes and Meditations on Philosophy essays Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, departed to Holland in order to pursue his dream of writing. During this period while he was in Holland, he wrote many works including one of his most known, Meditations on First Philosophy. In this work Descartes uses a specific method, sometimes referred to as the Cartesian Method and the Method of Universal Doubt, in order to reach a certain goal. In this paper I will be discussing the basic steps and goals of his method, while referring to the first four meditations in Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, to show how the method has been put into action. Descartes method begins immediately in the first meditation, in Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, when he explains, I have freed my mind of all cares, secured for myself a period of leisurely tranquility, and am with drawing into solitude (Descartes 13). Descartes wants to be alone and have peace while writing his meditations so that he can be able to concentrate and look at every aspect of his argument, to make sure the his logic and reason makes sense. He is not going to procrastinate anymore. The main goal of the first meditation was that Descartes wants to demolish all opinions (Descartes 13). He decides to wipe out everything that he once believed in, in order to establish a foundation for his argument that is sturdy. He knows it will be hard not to go back to these old opinions that he used to believe in as a child and young adult, but the only way to get to the truth is to doubt all these opinions and start a completely new form of thought. For example, he does th is by looking at the argument of the dream. He explains that when we dream the experience we have seems to be true and because of this how will anyone be able to distinguish being awake from being asleep (Descartes 14). This is why Descartes thinks we should doubt all things because our senses are not reliable. Furthermore, t...