Rene Descartes Meditations

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Individualism is a common topic many philosophers focus on when conveying their ideas to an audience, but Philosopher Rene Descartes does the opposite of this in his Meditations. Through Descartes’ Meditations, we can see that he is a foundationalist who believes that all of our ideas and thoughts come from one place, which is not from the individual, and that these ideas all stem from one certainty that we cannot doubt. Descartes does not fit the theme of focusing on individualism, especially in regard to knowledge, which can be seen through his descriptions of an “evil demon”, God, and a priori thought. Descartes constantly refers to the existence of an “evil demon” in his First Meditation and Second Meditation. He attributes all of the…show more content…
Descartes states, “…something can’t arise from nothing, and that what is more perfect – that is, contains in itself more reality – can’t arise from what is less perfect” (Descartes 12). This statement that Descartes makes is directed towards the fact that if we have an idea about something, that something must be true, in this case, there must be a God. In order to even imagine that there is a God, according to Descartes, proves that God is real, and since this idea of a “perfect God” is present in our minds, the true God must be as perfect as the God we can imagine. This relates back to Descartes belief that God is real and good, unlike the “evil demon” because if God were not, we wouldn’t have these thoughts about God in our minds. Descartes also believes that, like the “evil demon”, all of knowledge comes from God and therefore, once again rejects the individualistic view on obtaining…show more content…
As a foundationalist, Descartes has one belief, which can never be doubted, that all other beliefs stem from; “cogito sum”. “Cogito sum” stands for “I think, I am”. By having this belief, Descartes demonstrates that we all are individuals and have minds which can understand these ideas and comprehend all of the ideas that come from God and a priori knowledge. “If I had derived my existence from myself, I would not now doubt or want or lack anything at all; for I would have given myself all the perfections of which I have any idea” (Descartes 15). Descartes stating that his existence came from himself, he is focusing on himself as an individual, but he still knows that he has a mind and his mind and all of the ideas in his head must come from a God, not himself. In order to have this idea of a God, it must be true and therefore, Descartes still strays away from the idea of individualism in his
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