Descartes s Theory Of Knowledge - 1834 Words

Descartes theorized that in order to acquire knowledge, there essentially is some rational technique for attaining it, and that the expenditure of the senses, or any other individual capability was not a dependable basis. In his third meditation he says, â€Å"I know that even bodies are not perceived by the senses, or by the faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone (69). As a rationalist Descartes supposed that this withstood identically for everyone, that all people have rational learned concepts. He assumed that knowledge of external things was a result of only the cognizance, and not the senses. Descartes also anticipated that the entire universe was scientifically logical, and that everything could be comprehended by deduction.†¦show more content†¦The terms self and substance in Hume s view could refer to something only if they are meaningful. Such terms can be meaningful only if the ideas associated with them were derived from sensation. Hume s theory of m eaning therefore emphasizes the fact that the person exists not in terms of substance, but rather in terms of ideas that are derived from the senses. Man experienced the world through sensations generated by his physical existence. Hume s position is quite simply that persons consist of mind and body, the distinction between experience and the world to which it refers. While Descartes is truthful in his statement that the senses deceive us in some circumstances, his wide-ranging skepticism about the senses is not justified. In order to make his case, Descartes presented the example of the stick appearing to be deformed by the water in which he has found that his senses had in fact deceived him. To be vindicated in claiming that the senses deceive, a person would be required to be capable of recognizing when an error of the senses has taken place. In other words, the person would need to be able to differentiate amongst being erroneous and being accurate. For example, a person woul d need to know that the sticks appearance was an optical illusion and therefore what is seen is not what is actually there. However, in knowing this, a person is able to perceive the deception and thus avoid the error in senses. Descartes, in arguing