More of Meditations part 4

"...it occcurs to me first that there is no reason to marvel at the fact that God should bring about certain things the reasons for which I do not understand. Nor is his existence therefore to be doubted because I happen to experience other things of which I fail to grasp why and how he made them"

I think here Descartes is trying to say that he should not try to wonder why God made things the way he did. He is just going to have to accept the way things are now because nobody can understand God. He is also saying that God exist because he does not understand the things that God does. Descartes should know that God knows what he is doing. I never doubt God because I know that he does things for a reason.

Meditations Part 4

"...for error is not a pure negation, but rather a privation or lack of some knowledge that somehow ought to be in me"

I think here Descartes is realizing that he does have errors but only because he has a lack of knowledge. I think this is true because people make mistakes because they do not know what they are doing. But then again knowledge can not really help you because nobody knows everything. and sometimes it is not about knowledge...sometimes you know what you are doing is a mistake and you just make a stupid decision and do it anyway

Descartes: Meditations Part 4

"And since he does not wish to deceive me, he assurdly has given me the sort of faculty with which I could ever make a mistake. For if everything that is in me I got from God and he gave me no faculty for making mistakes, it seems I am incapable of ever erring"

Descartes believes that God exists but he does not believes that God deceives because that would make him seem weak. But he kind of goes back and forth between his thoughts about him being perfect and making mistakes. He thinks he is incapable of making mistakes because that is how God made him. He believes God is perfect and God makes perfect human beings. I believe that no one is perfect and Descartes can not undrstand God because no one really understands the way he does things. It is true that God works in mysterious ways but you should not try to understand them because God knows what he is doing and you should just trust him.

Discourse part 2

Rene Descartes says that buildings made by one person is better than buildings made by others because it has more art and it is more beautiful. This also ties into the fact that he believes that working alone is better than working in a group. He believes that it is difficult to make or build things that are attractive when you are working with more than one person.
He also states that people who are constructing a new town become organized and orderly when they work together. When they do not cooperate and do not work together the town becomes disorganized. I do not understand how he can believe this when he does not believe that working in a group is a good thing.

Descartes Discourse Part 2

Descartes compares the learning of new ideas to the foundations of a building. He says that it is better to build new ideas on a new foundation, rather then building upon the same old ideas and foundations. Just as one would not continue to build on an old building, but he/she would build on a new foundation. This idea of a foundation ties into the "seek the truth for yourself and not accept only others ideas" idea that he had. I like this metaphor that he has used because it gives a very clear picture of how one should seek their own truths and study their own ideas to themselves and not just live off of what they have learned from others, or the old foundations.

Descartes Meditations Part 4

In Meditations Part 4 Descartes talks about the "Thinking Nature vs. Corporeal Nature". The thinking nature being a "thing" that is capable of thought and perception of ideas, not necessarily a body. This is because he is not even sure if the body exists, therefore, he calls us the thinking things. Descartes says that the thinking thing has four distinct characteristics: understanding, doubting, denying, and refusing. The corporeal nature being the spiritual nature. He wonders if the thinking nature and the corporeal nature are different things or if they are the same two in one kind of nature. Personally. I think that the thinking thing theory Descartes has in absurd. I believe that our physical bodies do exist, so I'm kind of confused as to where he got the idea that they don't exist from. I agree with him though that we have the four characteristics that he has mentioned, but that we have many more then what he states. I don't think that the thinking nature and the corporeal nature are the same thing at all. Sure, some people have a spiritual nature in some way, but it is not our entire nature. There are the spirits we believe in, such as God and then there are us. We have spiritual beliefs and in some sense a spirit in us, but they are not the same things.   

Descartes: Discourse Part 2

In this passage Descartes also talks about knowledge in mathematics and how he will solve those types of equations. He says that he will use lines to represent his relations because he sees it to be simple. He also had planned to create symbols to express the quantities. He says also that he was always practice his methods in order to strengthen his reasoning skills. I think that practice does strengthen people in whatever they are practicing. 

Discourse Part Two

On page 9 of the Discourse Descartes mentions how there are two different types of minds. There are those who believe that they are more capable of doing things than they actually are and in doing so are unable to stop themselves from making risky decisions and those who are reasonable in what they think or believe but question whether things are true or false. Descartes believed that if he had not known all the differences between all the opinions of those who had learned the most then he would've been apart of the second group of minds. He had recognized that those who had feelings different than ours were not to be considered barbarians but that those such people chose to use their mind of reason the same as we do if not more.

Discourse part 2

Rene Descartes discusses how it is better for someone to work on their own instead of working with a group. I believe he says this because so many people have their own opinions about what they want and it is too many ideas and it is hard for people to agree on the same things. So when you work on your own you go by your ideas and you do not have any conflicts. This also ties into the reason he does not believe that learning from books are good. Descartes discusses that books are composed of opinions from others that may or may not be true. He also discusses that the judgements that we have our not our own. Our opinions are based on what others(parents, teachers, friends) tell us.

Descartes: Discourse Part 2

Within Part 4 of the Discourse, Descartes discusses how he had learned a lot through his life in the areas of philosophy, logic, and mathematics. He says, though, that what he had learned was not necessarily correct because it was the teachings of other people and it was what he had grown to believe was right. After thinking about that he then goes on to tell us about how he has formed four rules to apply to his analysis of these subjects so that he may discover the truth in it all. After applying his four rules to his work he realizes that it was so successful that he decides to apply this new method to all of his work so that he can avoid any wrong opinions or misconceptions.

-April