Status Updates From Philosophical Essays

pretty sure I read the second meditation in my knowing knowers and knowledge philosophy class. i like it much more than other parts of Descartes i’ve read so far, his reasoning for i think therefore i am is much more concrete than anything I’ve come across thus far in the book

idk man the assumptions&methods that Descartes elects to undertake just seem like cherry-picking starting pts. to get to the destination he wants.he says he will rid himself of all the truths he knows but then he admits his deference to God&proceeds to outline a method in which he will imagine some great deceiver that is God’s opposite.just seems like God in another form&he’s not truly casting away all his truths

“atheists make assumptions about God for their arguments, but they are wrong to do that. but let us remind ourselves of our own assumptions and believe we are right because we are not atheists”
“I won’t even address the arguments posed by atheists, i dont want to give them a platform”
this coming from the guy who said philosophy is great bc you can always argue 2 sides. brother get the hell out of here

starting from God and imagining it’s not impossible for another world created by Him (but left alone to its laws of nature) could resemble our own seems weak & cowardly.

descartes claims to be after the pursuit of truth of nature but for the argument of God he spends little time on his even weaker argument. nature is perfect it must be divine and so it must come from God like wth? that’s it? no further pursuit?

cmon man, i get it was the times but reading part 5 was depressing, my bro descartes didn’t even try embracing the absurd bro went straight to proving god exists - he’s a man full of hope and the conclusions he comes to will now be taken w a grain of salt (bc how much can i trust/takeaway from a man who displays cowardice and fear in the eyes of the absurd, he felt he had to accept God as his truth)

could take a page out of descartes’ book and practice more humility, at 23 he knew his lack of life experience would be a hindrance on drafting his philosophy, a lesson i still need instilled in me - i’m far too arrogant for my own good, always have been, even at times when the line between arrogance and confidence gets blurred i fear i take too many steps on the side of arrogance

24pgs of translator intro + notes on text so i’m on pg 27 of book but only on pg 3 of Descartes content

note: for future updates just add 24 to page number progress tracker