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Descartes: Dualism and Ethics
While Descartes Meditations don't actually mention the word 'ethics' his writing nevertheless deals with them to some extent. In his Meditations, Descartes talks about the nature and existence of both God and human beings. He ponders how humans can ever be sure of their own existence, because their senses lie to them all of the time, and there is no way to prove that what they can see, hear, and touch really exists.
This deals with ethics because people must believe in their senses in order to act on what they see around them. With the belief that nothing is real, there is no reason to remain ethical about anything. Ethics relate to how a person perceives the world and what they do about what they see. Because of this, perceptions and senses must be believed in order to know how to respond to the stimulus that the senses receive.
Descartes approaches this be examining whether the senses can be believed, and then...
If He does, why does he allow people to be deceived by their senses? Eventually, Descartes comes to the conclusion that God must exist because He is believed in and anything that can be thought of must be more important than the thought.
Whatever is perceived must be true, and since God can be perceived, He must exist. Also, Descartes points out that nothing can exist without a cause, and the existence of the object must be greater than that cause. In other words, God exists because there is clear and convincing evidence that He exists, and because people believe that he exists, the cause of their belief must be the actual existence of God. This is a somewhat circular and slightly confusing argument that Descartes makes.
While I do agree that God exists, Descartes' logic seems flawed in that he tries to prove one thing by proving another. The catch is that the second thing can only be…
Philosophy -- Plato's "The Apology" "The Apology" is Plato's recollection of Socrates' trial, conviction, sentencing and last words to the jury. The Apology is divided into three parts. The first part, Socrates' principal speech to the jury, is his argument against old and new accusations. The second part, Socrates' "counter-assessment," is Socrates' rebuttal of the prosecutor's recommendation of the death penalty. The third part, Socrates' final words to the jury, consists
This idea was accepted by most of the philosophical schools of the time, including the Atomists. Plato took quite a different approach and found that ideas, as noted, and saw idas as existing outside of human consciousness. Plato's doctrine of recollection holds that learning is the remembering of a wisdom that the soul enjoyed prior to its incarnation, another aspect of the idea that there are ideal forms "remembered" by
The question arising from this claim is whether evidence exists to prove that there exists an infinitely good, powerful, and wise God where morality naturally emerges. Humes argues that is hard to imagine that an all-good, powerful God exists in this world full of pain and misery. From these claims, one can argue that this insight, or God, has both evil and good, as is present in man if
He believes that fear of punishment for injustice is all that maintains our praise of justice. Gyges was willing to discard all sense of justice and nobility once the opportunity to act freely presented itself. 5. Socrates' use of the city as metaphor in his discussion of justice is the long way of describing the usefulness of justice and its application in human life. His description of a good city
We are obedient, and yet, we command our thought, knowing inside that while we suffer through winter, spring will always return. They create a divine will to power within us, and give us a true understanding of the eternal promise of spring, or the eternal promise of life and understanding. Plato believed that conquering and embracing life while recognize the inevitability of it makes up thought. Recognizing there is spring,
Prejudice Against Philosophy Plato (427-347 BCE) is often termed as the greatest Western philosopher. Historians like A.N. Whitehead like to quote: "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." [Bloom, 1991]. In defense of philosophers one can refer to Plato's definition of what a philosopher is and how useful he is to society. Plato's magnum opus "Republic" is considered as