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\title {Descartes \\ Lecture 06}
 
\maketitle
 

Lecture 06:

Descartes

\def \ititle {Lecture 06}
\def \isubtitle {Descartes}
\begin{center}
{\Large
\textbf{\ititle}: \isubtitle
}
 
\iemail %
\end{center}
 
\section{Error (part II)}
 
\section{Error (part II)}

‘I know by experience that I am prone to countless errors’
‘... [W]hat ... is the source of my mistakes?

\citep[p.~38; AT VII: 54]{descartes:1985_csm2}

Fourth Meditation

 

The intellect is the faculty of representation.

The will is what affirms or denies something represented

Judgement occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies).

The intellect is incapable of error (it merely represents).

Error occurs when the will affirms (or deines) incorrectly.

What should the will not affirm?

When the will affirms, what makes it correct or incorrect?

To be correct is to affirm those of the intellect’s representions which are correct.

Objection: All errors are consequences of the will.

To be correct is to affirm those of the intellect’s representions which are clear and distinct.

‘If [...] I simply refrain from making a judgement in cases where I do not perceive the truth with sufficient clarity and distinctness, then [....]I am behaving correctly and avoiding error.’

‘I know by experience that I am prone to countless errors’
‘... [W]hat ... is the source of my mistakes?

\citep[p.~38; AT VII: 54]{descartes:1985_csm2}

Fourth Meditation

 

The intellect is the faculty of representation.

The will is what affirms or denies something represented

Judgement occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies).

The intellect is incapable of error (it merely represents).

Error occurs when the will affirms (or deines) incorrectly.

So now we know what Descartes says on What should the will not affirm?

‘I can avoid error [...] merely [... by] remembering to withhold judgement on any occasion when the truth of the matter is not clear.’

\citep[p.~43; AT VII: 62]{descartes:1985_csm2}

Fourth Meditation

Here I can avoid error by not judging that what looks like a person is a person.
Not going to ask question yet ... postpone it

Can Descartes’ strategy enable you to avoid error?

‘in practical life
it is sometimes necessary to act upon opinons which one knows to be quite uncertain just as if they were indubitable’

Discourse on Method

\citep[p.~126 AT 6:31]{descartes:1985_csm1}

In devoting ‘myself soley to the search for truth
... I resolved to
pretend
that all the things that had ever
entered my mind were no more true
that the illusions of my dreams’

Discourse on Method

Can Descartes’ strategy enable you to avoid error in the search for truth?

1. What is it for a representation to be clear and distinct?

2. Why think representations which are not clear and distinct do not yield knowledge (except accidentally)?

3. Why think clear and distinct perceptions do yield knowledge?

P.S.

Descartes says his method can also enable him to know the truth! This is surely a step too far.

‘today I have learned not only what precautions to take to avoid ever going wrong,

but also what to do to arrive at the truth.

For I shall unquestionably reach the truth, if only I give sufficient attention to all the things which I perfectly understand, and separate these from all the other cases where my apprehension is more confused and obscure’

\citep[p.~43; AT VII: 62]{descartes:1985_csm2}

Fourth Meditation

 

Error and Clarity

 
\section{Error and Clarity}
 
\section{Error and Clarity}

When the will affirms, what makes it correct or incorrect?

To be correct is to affirm those of the intellect’s representions which are correct.

Objection: The intellect is not supposed to be capable of error.

To be correct is to affirm those of the intellect’s representions which are clear and distinct.

‘What is meant by a clear perception

I call a perception 'clear' when it is present and accessible to the attentive mind - just as we say that we see something clearly when it is present to the eye's gaze and stimulates it with a sufficient degree of strength and accessibility.

\citep[pp.~207--8, AT VIII:21--22]{descartes:1985_csm1}

Descates (Principles of Philosophy)

No idea what to make of this.
For comparison, why should a map that is clear and distinct be thought to be more accurate than one that is blurry?

why?

‘Whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true’

Third Meditation

 

Error and the Senses

 
\section{Error and the Senses}
 
\section{Error and the Senses}
\emph{The intellect} is the faculty of representation. \emph{The will} is what affirms or denies something represented \emph{Judgement} occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies). \emph{Error} occurs when will affirms (or denies) incorrectly.

The intellect is the faculty of representation.

The will is what affirms or denies something represented

Judgement occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies).

What about the senses?

Where do they fit in?

Sensory perceptions of tastes, smells, sounds, heat, cold, light, colors and the like ‘do not represent anything located outside our thought’

These sensory perceptions ‘vary according to the different movements which pass from all parts of our body to the ... brain’

Principles

(\citealp[p.~ 219, AT VIII:35]{descartes:1985_csm1} cited by \citealp[p.~348]{simmons:1999_are})
Sensations vs representations

‘Something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgement which is in my mind’

(Meditation 2).

‘I have been in the habit of misusing the order of nature. For‘the proper purpose of [...] sensory perceptions [...] is simply to inform the mind of what is beneficial or harmful [...];
and to this extent they are sufficiently clear and distinct.
But I misuse them by treating them as reliable touchstones for immediate judgements about the essential nature of the bodies located outside us;
yet this is an area where they provide only very obscure information.’

\citep[pp.~57-8]{descartes:1985_csm2}

Descartes, Meditation IV

Sensations can have valence without representing anything
Distinguish two claims: \begin{enumerate} \item Sensory perceptions are caused by things. \item Sensory perceptions represent (or present) things. \end{enumerate} Descartes accepts the first of these two claims (‘I do not see how God could be understood to be anything but a deceiver if the ideas were transmitted from a source other than corporeal things’).

Distinction:

Sensory perceptions have causes

Sensory perceptions represent (or present) things

Sensations like electricity have causes.

‘I do not see how God could be understood to be anything but a deceiver if the ideas were transmitted from a source other than corporeal things’

Recall this: The claim that bodies are ‘not strictly perceived by the senses’ plays an essential role in Descartes account of error. Since the senses do not strictly perceive bodies, they cannot be the cause of errors about bodies.

The intellect is the faculty of representation.

The will is what affirms or denies something represented

Judgement occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies).

What about the senses?

Where do they fit in?

Do sensory perceptions have intentional objects?

Ie they represent or otherwise relate to properties of things?