AS Philosophy - Descartes' a Priori Reasoning

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A-level Philosophy Mind Map on AS Philosophy - Descartes' a Priori Reasoning, created by Georgia Stanley on 19/04/2015.
Georgia Stanley
Mind Map by Georgia Stanley, updated more than 1 year ago
Georgia Stanley
Created by Georgia Stanley almost 9 years ago
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Resource summary

AS Philosophy - Descartes' a Priori Reasoning
  1. POINT 1
    1. All sensory experiences can be doubted. Sensory (empirical) evidence is doubtable.
      1. - all sense experience is produced by an 'evil demon'
        1. - you cannot tell that the experience is false by experience
          1. EMPIRICISM FAILS TO SECURE CERTAINTY
            1. - cannot know whether or not the experience is true or false because we cannot doubt the origins of our sense experience
        2. POINT 2
          1. Something that cannot be doubted. "I think therefore I am"
            1. Descartes' realises that when he is thinking, he exists, even if an evil demon is trying to convince him that he isn't
              1. Descarts cannot doubt that he is thinking
                1. Descartes arrives at his certainty through reasoning and intuition
              2. POINT 3
                1. Descartes cannot doubt that he exists but he can doubt that he is physical
                  1. - Descartes only believes he has a body because of sense experiences, but these are doubtable (evil demon)
                2. POINT 4
                  1. Descartes offers 3 options for what might cause our experiences of physical objects
                    1. 1. Real world
                      1. 2. God
                        1. God is the creator of (false) experiences of physical objects because he would be decieving us.
                        2. 3. Evil demon
                          1. God is no deciever because he's not a demon - because God would be allowing a demon to convince us of something false, but god isn't a deciever
                          2. CONCLUSION 1
                            1. Because god is perfect, he is not a deciever, so if god exists there must be an external physical world
                            2. CONCLUSION 2
                              1. There must be a self + physical world because both can be justified through rational intuition and demonstration. As long as god exists, sense experience cannot reach this proof, because it is doubtable.
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