Regarding Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, we are faced with an epistemological problem. Epistemology is defined as the theory of knowledge. It is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. Descartes begins his first meditation on the search for the absolute certainty of his existence. In doing so, he abandons the truths he had learned from his youth and reestablishes his foundations to be firm and rooted in science. This search for absolute certainty leads him to a method of doubt which he calls methodological doubt. It is described, for any belief (x), if (x) can be radically doubted, then (x) will be abandoned or considered nothing better than false. The purpose of methodological doubt was to find absolute certainty in things that could not be doubted, such as his mind. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Three rational doubts that Descartes challenges are listed as sensory illusions, dream illusions, and a deceptive god, the evil genius. The first doubt, sensory illusions, show us that we ourselves are not aware of what we truly see, smell, touch, hear and taste. “I have noticed that the senses are sometimes deceptive; and it is a sign of prudence never to place our complete trust in those who have deceived us even once." His second doubt is dreams. Lucid dreaming is when the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming. “As I consider these matters more carefully, I see so clearly that there are no definitive signs by which to distinguish being awake from being asleep.” Optometric research shows us that our brain is active during rapid eye movement or REM sleep. For the dreamer to have control of the dream, we cannot rely on dreams or our senses, as both deceive us. His final doubt concerns the goodness of God, but with radical doubt, it is possible that he has been deceived by an evil. genius. “Consequently, I assume not an extremely good God, the source of truth, but rather an evil genius, extremely powerful and intelligent and who has directed all his efforts to deceive me.” This brings him to his second mediation. Meditation II describes Descartes' metaphysical implications. Metaphysics is known as that branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowledge, substance, cause, identity, time, and space. Descartes' ultimate basis of his epistemology raises an indubitable belief coined as “Cogito ergo sum”. When Descartes asks him what it is, he concludes that he cannot doubt his mind, it is a thinking thing. As an evolving philosopher, I must weigh the metaphysical options for my position for what I argue. My options: metaphysics of mind, of matter, both mind and matter, and neither. The first implication, Metaphysics of the mind, Idealism; objects are immaterial. The mind perceives only objects. Bishop George Berkeley defined idealism as “the statement that everything that exists is a mind or depends on a mind for its existence” and immaterialism as “the statement that matter does not exist.” There is no external world and reality is a series of mental ideas. The first problem that presents itself is that of explaining the intuition of an external world. What we see is what our mind allows us to see. What we perceive is the external world, it is what we call reality. The mind is the center of our commands, thoughts, senses. It ultimately guides us through problem solving, decision making, and our functionsbasic. Our senses can be deceived since any change to an object such as the refraction of light or water is a temporary implication of what our mind perceives thus creating the problem of a possible illusion. Suppose, Berkeley is right, that in reality there is no external world, if we cannot perceive matter, how do the objects we use daily not exist? I don't believe it's not all in our minds. If it were, we wouldn't be able to explain the experiences. Humans absorb facts and events during new experiences, which cause electrical impulses through axons at our synapses to other neurons to store those experiences. The second metaphysical implication is the dominant metaphysical view with which most philosophers agree; Metaphysics of matter alone, Materialism. Matter is real and non-physical things are chemical reactions. “The theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter or energy; that all things are composed of material and that all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions.” Thomas Hobbes was a harsh materialist. Hobbes described God as a “corporeal spirit,” an immaterial thing. The issue we need to examine is the existence of free will or the existence of God. If life were lived by fate, Oedipus Rex would be a prime example of fate versus free will. At no point did he wonder how anything could be changed and he killed without hesitation, but he did not know that he had killed his father and fulfilled the prophecy. If this were certain, then the evil genius would be the one controlling our lives, and everything would indisputably happen for a reason. The choices made by a person would not matter and everything that has happened, is currently happening, and will happen in the future, is written within a scripture of divinity, god, spirit, archangel, etc. A great example of Descartes' evil genius theory is shown in the hit NBC show, The Good Place. Michael, our evil genius, is a demon with the appearance of a human. He was asked to devise a new sector of the bad place with four human subjects: Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason. They were assumed to believe, “Everything is fine.” But it wasn't, Michael devised this neighborhood to ensure that Michael assumed, because they are human, that they could torture each other for eternity. Eleanor realizes that she doesn't belong in the "good place" and asks Chidi, a professor of moral ethics and her "soulmate" if he can help her be a better person through ethics lessons, and the four eventually become the best versions of themselves. for the dessert idea. Along with the humans, Michael took ethics courses, and the evil genius himself realized the flaws within himself and became aware of his fate if he failed his experiment. He then abandons his original intentions and decides to help humans reach the right place. If an evil genius can make decisions and act based on free will, materialism cannot be seen as the dominant metaphysical viewpoint. Morally, the idea of good and evil generalizes us into the categories of people we are through our choices and free will, but this experiment demonstrates that fatalism can be modified with free will. Free will is the power to act without constraints. It is considered an illusion because no decisions are made freely. The third metaphysical implication, Metaphysics of mind and matter, Dualism. It is defined as "the position that mind and body are somehow categorically separated from each other, and that mental phenomena are, in some respects, nonphysical in nature.".
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