René Descartes Mediations On First Philosophy

René Descartes was a French philosopher, well known for his Mediations on First Philosophy. In the Mediations on First Philosophy, his main goal in the mediation is find certainty. He tries to determine the meaning of knowledge and what we really know. His method of solving this is simply focusing on a specific target and if he is capable of finding a possible way to doubt it, it is automatically rejected. The first mediation focuses on his methodology in trying to define knowledge through the process of elimination. The second mediation, he approaches the conclusion responsible for the well known saying “I think, therefore I am”. In this mediation he rejects possible reasoning for knowing simple things. He starts off broad until he reaches a narrow list. His first rejection begins with the sense-experience. Descartes finds a reason to doubt this because our dreams can be so realistic yet they are not reality therefore, we can simply be dreaming which makes what we know now, a possible fiction. However, he realizes that even in dreams nothing can be complete …show more content…
He is able to doubt everything, except that he is exists. Descartes acknowledges that while everything might be fiction, no divine intervention can prevent him from thinking. This is where he concluded that if we are able to think, we must exist. The second mediation brings out the realization that as humans, we project characteristics onto the things around us. For example, when we see two people are walking together on the street, we project the belief and opinion that they are two humans that most likely know each other. However they can be strangers, or, even further, they could even be robots pretending to be human. The only true knowledge that we have is that we exist, we are able to think and we have to ability to project our thoughts and beliefs onto things around