Cartesian Doubt refers to what Descartes did: doubting everything to attempt to build a coherant philosophy. For instance: how do I know I'm not dreaming? How do I know I'm not in a Matix? How do I know I even exist? etc. He famously followed this with "Cogito ergo sum" ie. that he was thinking showed that at least something of which he was part existed, so SOMETHING was certain. (Though other writers have looked at this differently. Some people doubt 2+2=5, since God might make us count wrong every time. But if so, we must doubt even basic logic, so I don't think any argument, even Cogito, makes sense.)
There should be a good introduction to Descartes somewhere online I can find if you like. But everything he did after that seems doubtful to me: he deduced the existance of God, and assumed God would never deceieve him, and hence that everything -- except optical illusions -- are true.
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Date: 2004-08-04 03:42 am (UTC)There should be a good introduction to Descartes somewhere online I can find if you like. But everything he did after that seems doubtful to me: he deduced the existance of God, and assumed God would never deceieve him, and hence that everything -- except optical illusions -- are true.