Can anyone help me out with meditations 1-5?? I have a Philosophy final tomorrow afternoon and am having a little trouble figuring out his meditations, namely 3 and above. Here is what I am under the impression of, let me know if it needs changing, or please add on.

Meditation I deals with Descartes' Deductive Reasoning, saying whatever we cannot prove absolutely must be false. He uses Deductive Reasoning to obtain Absolute Certainty.
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Descartes applies his Deductive Reasoning to three scenarios. "Could our senses be deceiving us", we are deceived by our sense all the time (pencil in water looks bent), however for the most part, our senses are reliable.

Meditation II - Descartes comes to his famous "I think therefore I am" claim in which he discovers that the mind and body are two seperate substances, the thinking mind (thinking substance), and the body, since the body cannot think (Material Substance). Descartes is attempting to prove his existence in Meditation II

Can anyone ellaborate on 1 and 2, and 3 and beyond? Thanks.
GC

__________________
The remembrance of today, is the sad feelin of tomorrow
-Bob Marley

I read somewhere, how important it is in life, not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions - Into the Wild

ah shit man- i woulda helped you out... just joined a couple days ago though.

No problem, I got an A in the class...somehow. Didn't think it was mathematically possible going into the final. funny stuff.

__________________
The remembrance of today, is the sad feelin of tomorrow
-Bob Marley

I read somewhere, how important it is in life, not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions - Into the Wild

Man... i only cant help you because i have arguments that shows that this Descartes reasonings may be wrong/incomplete. And it would only confuse you instead help you... anyway, after you get this test, tell us, so i can say what this arguments are.

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"Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don't have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference." Don Juan Matus - Tales of Power

I started this thread back in December. I've taken it a long time ago. In fact, it was kind of funny. I was taking my exam, and I got up to flip my jacket on and didn't realize i had my bowl with me. well when i flipped my jacket over my head, my bowl flew out, bounced on a couple chairs, and cmae to rest nearly 5 feet from my professir. I calmly picked it up and rushed the hell out of there.

__________________
The remembrance of today, is the sad feelin of tomorrow
-Bob Marley

I read somewhere, how important it is in life, not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions - Into the Wild

Well... its not true. Kurt Godel, a mathematician who studied logic, showed that there is logical propositions that cannot be proven to be false or true. Since logic is the most rigorous way of thinking, and even in the logic there is un-provable propositions, surely there is still more un-provable propositions is less rigorous systems of thinking, like philosophy, for example.

We are being "deceived" by our senses all the time. We dont see the world as it actually is, but only as our senses "tell" us how it is. For example, there is not what we call "white light". The white is in fact all colors superposed. If we could see the world as it actually is, instead white we would see all colors at the same time. But, our senses and brain interfere, and creates the "white", which seems a pure color. But it is not. Its only a "simplification".
And the same goes for all our senses. What we call the "outside world" which is percieved by our senses is just a representation, a description of the actual world. Very much the white is only a representation of "all the colors together".

But now im left wondering... What would your teacher think if you wrote things like that in your test?

__________________
"Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don't have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference." Don Juan Matus - Tales of Power

I would've failed. im glad u didn't respond till 3 months after my final....

__________________
The remembrance of today, is the sad feelin of tomorrow
-Bob Marley

I read somewhere, how important it is in life, not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions - Into the Wild