If this is true, then thoughts that mankind form -- principles of morality and knowledge of a rational life -- are determined solely by reason because the Creator allowed Man to have that capability which then must mean that the capability produces truth. To prove these ideas, Cartesian Rationality asks the reader to take formal steps into the manner of analysis and development within the ideological process. In six steps then, we can review Descartes' view on how it is a rationalization that uncovers the truth of the Universe. Because so much of the basic principles of Cartesian Rationalism are based on the actual premise of doubt, it is understandable that Descartes begins his Meditations on the sense of doubt as a precursor to thought, with the manner of gleaning information:
"All that I have, up to this moment, accepted as possessed of the highest truth and certainty, I received either from or through the senses. I observed, however, that these sometimes misled us; and it is the part of prudence not to place absolute confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived" (Meditations 1:3, hereafter M).
Justification of Viewpoint -- Even when Descartes doubts his senses, arguing that they occasional mislead us, or more truthfully, that we are unable to uncover the true meaning at that moment. Descartes notes that his senses have, indeed, deceived him previously -- sensory information is often fluid (e.g. he judged a stick poked into the water was bent, when in fact it was straight). Thus, there are indeed cogent reasons for his disbelief, which he calls methodic doubt, or a skeptical...
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