Jaidan Leeworthy 639666 jleeworthy@student.unimelb.edu.

au

Option 1: Explain the difference between rational knowledge and empirical knowledge. Explain Descartes' method of radical doubt. In Meditations 1 and 2 does he doubt only rational knowledge, only empirical

knowledge, or both? Explain the two things he's certain of by the end of Meditation 2. Explain why he's certain of them. ! ! ! ! ! I. Introduction (50 words) II. Rational Knowledge and Empirical Knowledge (100 words)

III. Descartes' Method of Radical Doubt (150 words) IV. Certainty (150 words) V. Conclusion (50 words)

Rene Descartes Meditations present the concept of Radical Doubt as an epistemological methodology to the modern world. At essence, Descartes redenes certainty by declaring everything he had previously known to be uncertain, and from that point identifying the ideas and methodologies most reliable for the acquisition of knowledge. This essay will explain the process of Radical Doubt and how Descartes achieves certainty by the use of rational knowledge. Empirical knowledge can be broadly dened as all knowledge that is derived from perceptions of the senses of the body. Such knowledge relates to the physical world, material world. Empirical knowledge is detailed in terms of the natural sciences: physics, astronomy, medicine, and all other disciplines that involve an examination of composite things (20). This is distinct from rational knowledge, which relates to things which are learned by internal study. These can be abstractions from the natural world, such as geometry, or even more abstract, mathematics, or simply ideas that occur and can be dened without the need for reference to any material object. Descartes makes this distinction in order to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of doubt, and it serves as the basis for his subsequent arguments. Descartes' approach of Radical Doubt stems from the realization that many things he has assumed to be true in his life, he has later found to be false. As his senses have not always proved to be trustworthy, he concludes that the empirical information they provide should be initially disregarded in the search for knowledge. Descartes' desire to "begin again from the most basic foundations" (18) thus leads him to doubt his knowledge regarding the existence of everything material, including, initially, himself. It is Descartes' separation of the mind from the body that enables him to justify his own existence in

Jaidan Leeworthy 639666 jleeworthy@student.unimelb.edu.au

Meditation II.Yet Descartes does not seriously doubt his capacity for rational knowledge in the Meditations. His process of Radical Doubt is more focused on doubting empirical knowledge, because he uses rational knowledge and logic to come to the conclusions that help him achieve certainty again. At the end of Meditation II, Descartes use of logic and reasoning has brought him to the rst certain conclusion that he is capable of logic and reasoning; ergo, that he is capable of thought, or witnessing thought as it occurs. That he thinks is the most certain of all the things that dene Descartes existence; he is certain of it because it is a logical abstraction from something he continuously experiences in the process of thought. Descartes has already in Meditation I found that the objects of rational study like mathematics and geometry, which are not affected by the existence or nonexistence of material objects, are certain and cannot be doubted (20). The other thing that Descartes is certain of is that he exists. From the premises that he is thinking, and that there cannot be a thought without a thinker, (and perhaps an unspoken premise that his sense of self is necessarily identied with the thinker of his thoughts), he must exist. The process of Radical Doubt is for Descartes purposes, a useful and elucidative methodology, if only to open to consideration novel possibilities about the nature of existence. While some might argue that his application of doubt is inadequate in some cases, the method is generally helpful in the approach of questions of epistemology and ontology. Works Cited Descartes, Ren. Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings. Penguin UK, 1998.