Introduction to philosophy - Assignment Example

? INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY The contributions that Descartes, Hume to philosophy The 17th and 18th century philosophers had enormous contributions to philosophy and they include Hume, Kant, and Descartes among others. This discussion will outline Hume and Descartes contribution to philosophy. The two are modern philosophers and their ideas lay a foundation to much human thought and examine the modern thought as they have developed a unique philosophy that extends to both rationalism and empiricism worlds. Examining both Hume and Descartes contributions to philosophy shows their critical contribution to the foundation of Kant and thus the basis that united rationalism and empiricism. Descartes contributions He is a rationalists who believe that some knowledge is attained other than by or via human senses, for instance, he says, “I therefore think I am” is a crucial element of this concept. More significant, the knowledge is heavily determined by knowledge of God – that is God and the idea of God is outside the senses realm and thus exists only through thought. Through his meditation, he indicates that with minds and thoughts people can make decisions around them. Descartes believe on two metaphysical substances – the thought and the matter. Contrary to traditional philosophy and their beliefs, Descartes holds that matter is without form and that certain ideas such as ideas of the God and mind are senses-centered and innate. The main limitation with Descartes contributions is that most of his work is highly grounded on God’s existence and thus it needs God to aid prove certain innate ideals concept outside the sensible universe. Descartes contributions gives a easy example to support because it does not require much support as one cannot truly deny God’s existence and people can argue that God exists because they believe in his existence and may twist this idea to consider it as innate thought. If a person has faith in God, he cannot reject this faith; therefore, Descartes supports his ideas through this faith. The philosophical concept of innate ideas can be used as evidence to support God’s existence because it does not require any other basis. David Hume’s contributions He is an empiricist who opposes Descartes ideas of knowledge of God, as Hume does not believe in God. He started by arguing for the empiricism significance, the idea that peoples’ knowledge is anchored on their experiences and he employed this strategy to analyze various philosophical concepts. He argues that all of peoples’ complex ideas originate from simpler ideas that are formed based on the impressions received via their senses, thus, ideas does not essentially differ from experiences. Hume also stresses on matter of fact – he considers them matters that people must experience and not instinctually arrived at or reasoned. Because of the above claims, Hume opposes systems of metaphysic utilized to prove soul, divine creation, and God ideas existence. Therefore, because people have no experience of these ideas and cannot get straight impression of them, people do not have to believe in their truth. Hume systematically believes that facts and ideologies emanate from experiences and that unless people have experience of concepts like universe size, time and space such a concept would be meaningless. He argues that both our ideas and impressions are not infinitely divisible and if we insist on simplifying them further we would eventually reach at an increasingly small level that is hard to conceptually understand and perceive, therefore, because people have no experience of infinite divisibility, then the idea if infinitely divisible an idea is meaningless. According to Hume, mathematics is a system of pure ideas relations and thus it maintains its value although people cannot directly perceive its phenomena because most of mathematical principles do not make sense, but it is a realm of knowledge because perfect certainty is attainable. Irrespective of Hume’s apparent hostility to metaphysical nature abstract ideas, he considers all abstract ideas meaningless, (Pojman & Fieser, 2008). He asserts that the mind naturally differentiates ideas from similar impressions and this process describes why people can envisage certain events that they have not experienced in conjunction with their experiences. Western philosophy limitations Western philosophy though very crucial in explaining modern events and thinking, they have various limitations, for instance, various western philosophers insists on the assumption that various critical philosophical distinctions is that between object and subject. This limitation because the object and subject difference is secondary to the real differentiation between absolute and relative reality –conceptual. Absolute reality is the current happenings prior to making differences while relative reality is people’s thoughts concerning reality. Literally, this appears like fair direct difference, but with thorough examination, one realizes that it is extremely subtle. The main reason for confusion in modern philosophy is the fact that western philosophers rarely see this difference and that why they always assume that some concepts such as space, time, and objects are real and thus they base all their reasoning on false assumptions platform. In most textbooks of the western philosophers, the progress issue in philosophy is clearly neglected and some of the philosophers who focus on such issues argue that there is no definite solution to questions. They argue that classic is defined by a novel approach to the similar concern that will stimulate discussion for many centuries. This and other unfortunate retreat of analytical thoughts lead critical arcane systematic convulsions, broken down into various specialized thoughts with direction on people’s daily lives have led to diminishing of the philosophical role. Continental philosophy, for instance, has various limitations with likelihood for philosophers to put jargon and obfuscation on lucid prose. Their tendency to display and preen has limited the significance of their ideas and the vagueness of Foutcault and Louis Althusser has hindered western philosophers’ philosophical contributions. This does not imply that Western philosophy is invalid or does not contribute valid solutions to science; it implies that western philosophy does not tend to provide remedy to modern challenges. The western philosophy limitation is a great one and has enormous effects on Religious and epistemological philosophy. The challenge stems from Descartes work, his systematic doubt use, and Kant later highlights this challenge. For instance, Descartes argues on a demon existence that controlled the data sense that dominated human brain. He questions human knowledge on the existence of the world because the illusions and dreams existence indicate that people do not often hold real beliefs concerning the external world. Descartes, using his intelligence to doubt and ignore what people do not have firm basis on, he provides a strong basis from which people could create their world beliefs. Descartes construed that people can be sure of their thinking because they belief they exists. Through this, he has created a big gap between the self and the external world and thus it is impossible to know whether the external world is fully represented by people’s perception. This distinction of the self and the external world has caused various problems that are evident in the contemporary society. To resolve these western philosophy limitations, western philosophers should realize and embrace the awareness of the two aspects to various concepts such as time, space and subject/objects. Moderns philosophers should understand and embrace the fact that there exists a sense in which world seems to be categorized into separate objects and subjects, and understand there is an aspect whereby no objects/subjects and thus nothing is separate in space and time. If they understand such distinctions, they will understand the significance of concepts in developing a critical practical, intellectual reality understanding. References Top of Form Pojman, L. P., & Fieser, J. (2008). Introduction to philosophy: Classical and contemporary readings. Princeton, N.J: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. Bottom of Form Read More