Rene Descartes Critical Thinkings Samples For Students

Key terms

Meditation- a thought processes intended to understand abstract ideas by Rene Descartes
Chimeras- By this Descartes intends to mean that all what he thought about his existence is mythical and not true, in fact, it does not even exist.

Conclusion/central argument

Even though Descartes presumes that all what he knew about his existence was a creation of his deceptive mind and actually false and not just doubtful, at least one belief much be true. And this is the truth that as long as he is thinking, as long as he is being deceived, then he must exist, at least to allow for ...

Mind and Body Debate

Renowned philosophers Rene Descartes and John Searle are having a cup of tea in Descartes’ living room. As expected, their discussion turns philosophical. Each of the two presents their arguments on the mind and body problem.

Descartes: I believe the mind and body are two distinct and separate substances.

Searle: Every time you postulate an opinion I know we are about to start a long argument. I heard you say the mind is independent of the body. How true is that? I applaud many of your opinions and theories in philosophy. However, I beg to differ on this one.
Descartes: My friend, I will take you systematically through my quest for certainty. I ...

One of the most shadowy figures in the history of religious experience is Pontius Pilate, who just happened to be the Roman prefect over Judea when the Jews in that province happened to become very upset about the teachings of Jesus. As prefect, Pilate was in charge of determining Jesus’ fate when it became clear that the Jewish leadership wanted Jesus executed, because only the Roman authorities could order a death sentence. One of the more uncomfortable meetings in all of history ensued when Pilate brought in Jesus for an audience. The Gospels agree that Pilate did not find anything ...