montaigne and descartes on doubting Essay example

Montaigne and Descartes nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Montaigne and Descartes both made use of a philosophical method that focused on the use of doubt to make discoveries about themselves and the world around them. However, they doubted different things. Descartes doubted all his previous knowledge from his senses, while Montaigne doubted that there were any absolute certainties in knowledge. Although they both began their philosophical processes by doubting, Montaigne doubting a constant static self, and Descartes doubted that anything existed at all, Descartes was able to move past that doubt to find one indubitably certainty, â€Å"I think, therefore I am†. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;How often do we question what is real or true?†¦show more content†¦nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Through his philosophical search Descartes was able to find one indubitable certainty, that we are thinking beings. We always think, even when we have doubts that we are thinking we are still thinking because a doubt is a thought. Although Descartes found this one universal truth, he was still not able to believe in anything but the fact that he was a thinking being. Therefore he still doubted everything around him. He used this one certainty to try to find a system of knowledge about everything in the world. Descartes idea was to propose a hypothesis about something. For example he might say that a perfect being was in existence. He would go around this thought in a methodical way, doubting it, all the while trying to identify it as a certainty. Doubting everything was at first dangerous because in doubting everything he was also admitting that he doubted th e existence of God, and thus opposing the church. However he made it a point to tell us at the beginning of his Discourse on Methods that what he was writing was only for himself and that he expected no one but himself to follow it (Descartes 14, 15). Descartes eventually managed to prove the existence of a higher being. He said that since he had the idea of a perfect being, then that perfect being must exist. HisShow MoreRelatedMontaigne and Descartes on Doubting1571 Words   |  7 Pages2004 Philosophy 110 Montaigne and Descartes Montaigne and Descartes both made use of a philosophical method that focused on the use of doubt to make discoveries about themselves and the world around them. However, they doubted different things. Descartes doubted all his previous knowledge from his senses, while Montaigne doubted that there were any absolute certainties in knowledge. Although they both began their philosophical processes by doubting, Montaigne doubting a constant static selfRead MoreGod Is Truth Essay1409 Words   |  6 PagesMontaigne, Descartes, and Pascal all believe in a superlative truth unforeseeable through the commonly held truth of society. Montaigne states that even contradictions are not contradictions in truth (Montaigne, p.75). Not believing in the possibility of this lack contradiction in truth would be considered scepticism - scepticism being the reluctance to believe anything for any reason. This same scepticism is explained by Descartes as a self-disproving falsity by his quotation I th ink, thereforeRead More How Descartes Tries to Extricate Himself from the Skeptical Doubts He Has Raised4647 Words   |  19 PagesHow Descartes Tries to Extricate Himself from the Skeptical Doubts He Has Raised [All page references and quotations from the Meditations are taken from the 1995 Everyman edition] In the Meditations, Descartes embarks upon what Bernard Williams has called the project of Pure Enquiry to discover certain, indubitable foundations for knowledge. By subjecting everything to doubt Descartes hoped to discover whatever was immune to it. In order to best understand how and why Descartes