Tutorial # 16. Epistemology: What is Knowledge? Classical Analysis

Traditionally, knowledge was defined as justified true belief.

A knows that X meant that:
- X is true;
- A believes that X;
- A is justified in believing that X.

There must be three conditions satisfied if person A is to know X.
Firstly, person A must believe that X is the case.
Secondly, X must be true; it must be the case that X is true.
Thirdly, person A must be justified in believing that X is the case.

Edmund Gettier saw a flaw in this argument of justified true belief. In his paper he presented two counterexamples to the classical theory of knowledge.
He argued that the three conditions were satisfied, but person A really did not know X. Therefore, if Gettier is right, the three conditions are not sufficient to define what knowledge is: Knowledge is not justified true belief.

Tutorial # 15. Descartes’ Meditations. In a Nutshell

HERE
You can find a very useful summary of the main arguments from Descartes' Meditations
by David Banach,

Department of Philosophy St. Anselm College

Tutorial # 15. Descartes’ Meditations VI: The Union of Mind and Body. Discussion Questions

After having read the Meditations II & VI - A Trilingual HTML Edition of Descartes' Meditations can be found HERE Edited by David B. Manley and Charles S. Taylor, think about these questions.

• Think about some example of mental and physical aspects of the world.
• Consider a situation where you are dancing, what are the mental aspects of this situation?What are the physical aspects? Are these aspects the very same thing? Or can you find any substantial difference?
• How does Descartes conceive of the essence of mind and body?
• What is a thinking thing? Is a computer a thinking thing? Is a virus a thinking thing? And a dog? What might be a sufficient condition for being a thinking thing?
• Descartes (Meditation ii) claims “I am the same being who perceives, that is, who apprehends certain objects as by the organs of sense, since, in truth, I see light, hear a noise, and feel heat.”. Now, what is this ‘I’? How our perceptions (of colors, noises, shapes, etc) are unified?
• Do we know better the properties of the mind, or the properties of the body?
• Consider the wax example (Meditation ii). In which sense does the wax remain the same after all the changes?
• If there were no minds to attend the wax, would the wax have a certain color, say white?
• According to Descartes, can a mind exist without a body?
• Imagine that your body were transformed into the body of a bee, do you think your mind would be the same?
• “I am not only lodged in my body as a pilot in a vessel, but that I am besides so intimately conjoined, and as it were intermixed with it, that my mind and body compose a certain unity” (Meditation vi): What does this “certain unity” amount to?
• “When we stand in need of drink, there arises from this want a certain parchedness in the throat that moves its nerves, and by means of them the internal parts of the brain; and this movement affects the mind with the sensation of thirst, because there is nothing on that occasion which is more useful for us than to be made aware that we have need of drink for the preservation of our health.” What is the role of the mind here, and what is the role of the body?
• Can a non-physical mind be investigated scientifically?
• If mind and body are radically different types of stuff, how can they interact with each other?
• If all physical effect is fully caused by physical causes, then can the mind have a causal influence on anything physical?
• Does the mind affect the brain? Make examples.

Tutorial # 15. Descartes’ Meditations VI: The Union of Mind and Body. The Pineal Gland

René Descartes was a philosopher who believed that he had found the exact point in the brain where the body and soul meet. Rather unromantically, the structure he chose was the humble pineal gland.

Tutorial # 14 Descartes’ Meditations III, IV and V: The Existence of God. Discussion Questions

Try to think about\answer the questions below after having read and meditated:
René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (Meditations III, IV, and V)
A useful summary of Descartes' "Proof" for the existence of God is HERE
Another very useful resorce is the Descartes Ontological argument entry on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• What are Descartes’ arguments for the existence of God?
• His ontological argument is grounded in a theory of innate ideas and the doctrine of clear and distinct perception . But Is the idea of God innate? If so, how and why? Try and speculate (reasonably) about it.
• If not, would that make a difference with regard to the existence of God?
• How would you argue that the idea of God is clear and distinct?
• Is Descartes’ argument for the existence of God apriori (take a look at the post on apriori\aposteriori)?
• Is it logically valid? Or does the argument have a different form?
• What are the main differences between St Anselm’s and Descartes’ ontological arguments?
• Is Descartes’ God the God of the Bible (or of any reveled religion)?
• What is the role of God in Descartes’ philosophy?
• What attributes does Descartes’ God possess?
• If God is supremely good, would it follow that we cannot be deceived? In which sense?
• If God is supremely good, would it follow that God gave the same innate ideas to all minds?
• Think about Pascal’s critique: Why Does Pascal claim: “Descartes useless and uncertain”?
• Is Pascal’s target the logical validity of Descartes’ argument?

Tutorial # 14 Descartes’ Meditations III, IV and V: The Existence of God. Pascal's Critique

From 1670 PENSEES

by Blaise Pascal

SECTION II: THE MISERY OF MAN WITHOUT GOD

77. I cannot forgive Descartes. In all his philosophy he would have been quite willing to dispense with God. But he had to make Him give a fillip to set the world in motion; beyond this, he has no further need of God.
‑‑78. Descartes useless and uncertain.
‑‑79. Descartes. -- We must say summarily: "This is made by figure and motion," for it is true. But to say what these are, and to compose the machine, is ridiculous. For it is useless, uncertain, and painful. And were it true, we do not think all Philosophy is worth one hour of pain.

Tutorial # 14. Descartes’ Meditations III, IV and V: The Existence of God. On God's Perfections

On The Perfections Attributed to God...