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下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- Descartes and the Cartesian Circle，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了笛卡尔和笛卡尔圆。笛卡尔圆，指的是笛卡尔通过证明上帝的存在来论证真理规律。笛卡尔圆基于两个命题。笛卡尔认为一个人之所以能感知事物的真相，是因为他确信上帝的存在。认识到上帝的存在，人们就不应该再怀疑自己清晰而鲜明的感知。仁慈全能的上帝不可能赋予人类容易被欺骗的本性。因此，正是上帝创造的人性产生了清晰而鲜明的感知。人们不应该对清晰而鲜明的观念有任何怀疑。

The aim of this paper is to discuss the way Descartes proposes to escape the radical scepticism and whether the attempt is successful based on his philosophical work Meditations. This paper argues that Descartes tries to escape the radical scepticism through the belief in the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent God. His attempt does not fall into circularity and succeed in defeating the radical scepticism. This paper will first give an explanation of Descartes’s radical scepticism as well as the Cartesian Circle. Then, there will be a discussion about contradictory nature of the Cartesian Circle and the reasons for Descartes falling into the Cartesian Circle that leads to the failure.

Descartes argues that people should be skeptical about everything and be careful about believing what they perceive. People’s judgement about the outside world can be wrong because the deceiving nature of their senses. The basic principle of Descartes’s radical scepticism is to be skeptical about the truth of beliefs in order to determine which beliefs are true and which are not. He thinks that people’s senses and knowledge are unreliable, and he even doubts the process of reasoning. There are three propositions of doubt providing the foundation for Descartes’s radical point of scepticism. He first becomes skeptical about what he believes he already knows. Everything include a potential item of doubt should be rejected. After he identifies his false beliefs, he finds the  foundations that support these beliefs and get rid of them. At last, he reach the complete scepticism by no long trusting anything that has deceived him. Descartes proposes the technique for doubting. First, people should only accept information that is true. They should break down the truths into smaller parts. Then, they solve the simple problems first and deal with more complex problems afterwards. Through this process, people can identify the most genuine truth and regard it as the foundation for knowledge. However, it should be noted that by doubting the truth of belief, the ultimate goal of Descartes’s radical scepticism is to establish a belief system of only genuinely true beliefs and provides a undoubtable foundation for the sciences. The way Descartes attempts to build a belief system that can escape the radical scepticism is through the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent God.

The Cartesian Circle refers to the Descartes’s reasoning towards the truth rule by proving the existence of God. The fundamental basis of the Cartesian Circle is the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent God. Cartesian Circle is based on two propositions. First, Descartes thinks the reason for an individuals to perceive the truth in things is that he is certain that God exists and is not a deceiver. He believes that it is impossible for a benevolent God to deceive people into believing things that are not true. As God is a perfect being and creates all the properties of human beings, whatever people clearly and distinctly conceive is true. Knowing the existence of God, people should no longer have a doubt about their clear and distinct perceptions. God is very powerful in making sure people are not deceived by things that are not true. Therefore, the existence of God is the basis of people’s clear and distinct perceptions toward things in the world. Descartes attributes the truth of things to the existence of God. The second proposition is that clear and distinct perceptions ensure that what people believe is the truth. It is not possible for a benevolent and omnipotent God to give humans a nature that is easily deceivable. Therefore, it is the human nature created by God that generates clear and distinct perceptions. People should not have a doubt towards clear and distinct perceptions.

The contradictory part of the Cartesian Circle lies in that people cannot be certain about the existence of a benevolent God unless they have clear and distinct perceptions. In trying to prove the existence of God, people have to depend on what they can clearly and distinctly perceive. This is contradict to the first proposition that people can only gain clear and distinct perceptions due to the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent God. However, this paper believes that the Cartesian Circle is not a circular argument. As God is the basis for Descartes’ the Cartesian Circle, Descartes’s perceptions about God should be discussed. In the Second Meditation, Descartes reveals a universal truth that the individual exists as a thinking thing. This emphasizes the thinking activities as an intuition of one's own existence as well as prove the genuine truth that people can be certain about their own existence. Based on the this, Descartes expand his theories to explore other indubitable knowledge. He tries to prove the existence of God by relating to the imperfection of human beings. Descartes believes that the individual is an imperfect being who has to accept something more formal and real than himself. The existence of human beings as imperfect individuals is because something perfect has created them, which leads to the conclusion that there is a perfect being existing formally. Descartes thinks God as the only perfect being who is able to use his power of create the ideas of human beings. After proving the existence of God, Descartes tries to identify the nature of God, that is, whether there exists a benevolent God or a deceiving God. Descartes states that he “must examine whether there is a God, and, if there is, whether he can be a deceiver” (CSM II 25).

Taking into consideration of the possibility of a deceiving God can be regarded as the most comprehensive doubts of one’s beliefs as people are taught to trust in God without doubt. The belief in God is the most fundamental component of people’s trust in the world. If God is a truly omnipotent deceiver, then God has the ability to render every perception of human beings false by changing the reality of the world. This leads to the result that it is impossible for people to find the truth in anything because there is no truth that can be perceived by people due to God’s will. However, since the senses of human beings can be very deceiving, Descartes believes that God has no reason to deceive human beings. On the other hand, to believe in a deceiving God will lead to any attempt in building a belief system in vain. At this point, Descartes succeeds in escaping the radical scepticism as he has overcome the great skeptical challenge-the scepticism against the creator of all the substances. Therefore, Descartes choose to believe the existence of a benevolent God as the foundation of his further exploration.

When Descartes proposes the truth rule that “whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true” (CSM II 24), the existence of a perfectly good God is used as the necessary condition for the clear and distinct perception. It is should be noted that the existence of a benevolent God does not justify the truth of clear and distinct perceptions, but the accuracy of human beings’ memories. What God guarantees is what previously has been clearly and distinct perceived remains true now. Therefore, in regards to the Cartesian Circle, Descartes’s proposition that individuals perceive the truth in things because that he is certain of the existence of a good God actually means that a good God will not alter human beings’ perceptions to deceive them. This is contrary to a deceiving God that renders every human beings’ perception false and prevents them from the truth of things. The second proposition of the Cartesian Circle is that people have to depend on what they can clearly and distinctly perceive to prove the existence of God. Descartes thinks that the existence of God has been proved the existence of imperfect beings – humans themselves. God endows humans with a nature that can recognize the truth in things with their clear and distinct perceptions. Human beings’ awareness of a good God is also attributed to the nature of human beings as well as the benevolence of God.

In conclusion, this assignment have discussed the way Descartes proposes to escape the radical scepticism and the success of his attempt in achieving this goal. Descartes propose the basic principle in the Mediation as the scepticism against what people perceive. He also identifies techniques of being doubtful about the truth in things. However, he is able to identifies several truth rules in order to build a belief systems that can escape radical scepticism. The Cartesian Circle is an important way for escaping radical scepticism as it believes in the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent God. The Cartesian Circle does not fall into circularity because of two reasons. Fist, the existence of a benevolent God is contrary to the deceiving God who keeps truth from human beings. The existence of a benevolent God is predominant factor for humans to recognize truths. Second, the clear and distinct perceptions is the ability given by God to recognize the truth in things. Human beings’ perception of a good God is attributed to the nature of human beings as well as the benevolence of God.

Reference:

Cottingham, J., Stoothoff, R. & Murdoch, D. (1984). eds. and trans. Meidation on First Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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