Meet Descartes
He is often called the father of modern philosophy.
Who is René Descartes?
Descartes deliberately questions anything that could possibly be this.
What is doubtful/uncertain?
Descartes’s famous statement: “I think, therefore ___.”
What is "I am"?
According to Descartes, humans consist of these two distinct substances.
What are mind and body?
The view that reason is the primary source of knowledge.
What is rationalism?
Descartes is considered the archetype of this philosophical position.
What is rationalism?
Descartes does not completely trust these because they can deceive us.
What are the senses?
This Latin phrase means “I think, therefore I am.”
What is Cogito, ergo sum?
This part of a human is governed by physical laws.
What is the body?
This type of knowledge comes from sense experience.
What is a posteriori knowledge?
This field strongly influenced Descartes’s precise philosophical method.
What is mathematics?
Descartes imagines this powerful deceiver who could manipulate his perception of reality.
What is the evil genius?
Even if Descartes is being deceived, doing this proves that he exists.
What is thinking?
Cartesian dualism creates this famous philosophical problem.
What is the mind–body problem?
This type of knowledge comes from reason independently of experience.
What is a priori knowledge?
Descartes believed true ideas must possess these two qualities.
What are clarity and distinctness?
This problem asks whether we can ever be completely certain that we're awake rather than asleep.
What is the dream problem?
After doubting almost everything, Descartes concludes that he is fundamentally this kind of thing.
What is a thinking thing?
Descartes believed this gland provided the connection between mind and body.
What is the pineal gland?
The belief that reality consists of two fundamentally different kinds of substance.
$400 — What is dualism?
Descartes helped shift philosophy away from metaphysics and toward this study of knowledge.
What is epistemology
Descartes uses methodical doubt in an attempt to find this for human knowledge.
What is an absolutely certain foundation for knowledge?
After establishing his own existence, Descartes attempts to prove the existence of this being.
Who is God?
This philosopher criticized the cultural consequences of Cartesian dualism in Unbearable Weight.
Who is Susan Bordo?
This criticism argues that Descartes uses clear and distinct ideas to establish God and then uses God to guarantee clear and distinct ideas.
What is the Cartesian Circle?