Rene Descartes (1 ene 1596 año – 1 ene 1650 año)

Descripción:

"Father of Modern Philosophy"

-Wrote extensively on mathematics and physics

-Wanted to establish a secure foundation for all human knowledge

-1500's-->late Renaissance-->beginning of general questioning of church authority and growing belief in science

-Held his tongue about heliocentrism after learning of Copernicus' retaliation from the church

-Contemporaries:
(1) Sir Francis Bacon - induction - observe, then draw conclusions vs. Aristotelian deduction
(2) Galileo - telescopic evidence supported Copernican universe; forced to recant heliocentric views ("and yet it moves")

-Trained in the scholastic tradition (Aristotelian logic + church doctrine); left the Jesuits determined to learn on his own

-Descartes's rationalism - absolute truth can be discovered through careful reasoning
-----systematic doubt - "I know nothing"; use of reason to arrive at truth: question world-->filter out nonsense-->arrive at pure truth

-Discourse on Method (1637) - 4 rules to arrive at truth:
(1) systematic doubt
(2) analysis
(3) synthesis
(4) check the work

-Nativist - "Doctrine of Ideas" = the mind produces 2 types of ideas: derived and innate (nature v. nurture)

-Dualist - mind and body are separate essences; Cartesian dichotomy

-Mind-body problem: question of the distinction between mental and physical qualities
-----Descartes proposed that the mind and body are joined in that they influence each other

-Mind-body interaction:
-----occurs in the brain
-----mind provides humans with information about the external world
-----quantity of physical motion (flow of animal spirits) produces a mental quality (sensation)


-'animal spirits' = hypothetical essence once believed to inhabit the nervous system and to be the driving force behind muscle movement

-discovered reflexes, but did not coin the term

-believed that the pineal gland was the locus of mind-body interaction

-Animals = mechanical bodies/no mind
-Humans = mechanical bodies/nonmaterial mind - directly interact

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