October 3, 2016

• c&d = clear and distinct
• all of my clear and distinct ideas are true - argument
• If there is even one clear and distinct idea that's not true then I am not certain that of I exist an once thinking thing
• I am certain that I exist and am a res cogitans
• Therefore, there is not a single clear and distinct idea that is false
• because of the Suarez argument I am a thinking thing
• just as I know that wax whether it exists or not it is flexible and changeable
• If you get rid of one of them you get rid of the while lot
• if you make the argument that you are dreaming now it holds when you have perceived real objects
• This is the only thing that can gives us certainty is that you perceive things clear and distinctly
• argument goes back to the stoics
• they were fighting off ancient skeptics
• if you have an impression that is almost like another it can't be the same
• Suarez
• meditation 3 : I have a concept of god as an infinite perfection
• if god is infinite perfection there is a problem of evil
• how is it that god makes me someone who can be wrong, doubted or deceived
• meditation 4 - god does give me something perfect, god gives me an infinite will
• I have the ability t decide to believe or not to believe
• since god gives me infinite will because he gives me finite judgment
• its my fault if I choose to decide to act outside my finite judgment
• its dangerous if I act outside my clear and distinct ideas
• because there is a demon I don't know if my images are based in reality
• god is not a deceiver
• everything I clearly and distinctly grasp must be true
• god will not deceive me in my memory of what I perceived to be true
• god also guarantees that my memory of clear and distinct ideas is secure
• even if I am dreaming those aren't things I clearly and distinctly perceive only things that I clearly distinct and perceive are real
• I am a res cogitans
• God exists ( no evil demon)
• mathematics is true
• even if there are no material objects and none of us exists the special images are coherent
• this doesn't give you that the external world exists this gives you that the imagination is okay
• what about physical objects?
• 2 arguments
• the argument is for physical objects existing
• the other is that the mind and bodies are distinct ( although my mind and my body are tightly connected)  - princess Elizabeth puts pressure on this argument
• the corner Descartes encounters is the main problem of dualism
• physical objects can exist ( mathematics)
• anything I c&d perceive is possible
• I c&d geometric objects
• god can make what's possible
• god can make physical objects
• distinguishes between things I can imagine and things I can understand
• I conconjecture that physical objects exist
• I am inclined to so believe that my impressions of physical objects come from physical objects and not something else
• if there are no physical objects god is a deceiver
• If a is distinct from b clearly and distinctly then a and b can exist apart
• If clearly and distinctly perceive a apart from b than a I distinct from b
• By process of doubt I perceive c&d only that I am a thinking thing as opposed to a thinking thing with a body
• I am distinct from any body and so by ( a and b are existing apart) can exist apart form it