What is the significance, the importance, and the use of Descartes' Meditations?

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Asher
What was the first?

Plato's cave.

Peano's "axiomization" is the third and final (so far).

And the Matrix is much closer to Plato's cave or a Gettier scenario than it is to Descartes.

[JohnT]

...More of Asher's intellectual journey as he continues to plot his 6 year path to his MSCIE certification...



( )

[Asher]

The term is MSCE.

But no thanks, I'm aiming for the MSc route.

[BeBMan]

Oh yeah, do you hear Agathon coming?

[BeBMan]

quote:
(...) but rather some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.:

And here he clearly speaks about MS....

[Giant_Squid]

If I'm thinking of the right thing, the significance is in epistemology and the possibility of having proven knowledge of anything. You can doubt you have a body because maybe you're in the Matrix, or some demon is deceiving you into thinking that you have a body, or you're a spiritual being hallucinating you have a body, or any of a number of things. It's not very likely, but it's possible. You can doubt pretty much anything on the same grounds, so at this point Descartes has proven that none of these things are a legitimate base on which to found a worldview. But what Descartes can't doubt is that he exists, since his doubting is a thought and thought implies existence (at least according to him). Therefore, he uses the statement "I think therefore I am" as a basic axiom, and fudges around a bit to prove everything else in light of that single statement. The significance is that it's one of the first attempts to find an undoubtable statement and to found philosophy on geometry-style self-evident postulates.
Or something. Agathon can proly explain it better.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by The Templar


Plato's cave.

Peano's "axiomization" is the third and final (so far).

And the Matrix is much closer to Plato's cave or a Gettier scenario than it is to Descartes.

What's wrong with the Peano axioms?

[KrazyHorse]

Anyhow, you can't prove anything from Descarte's axiom. No matter how hard he tries.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Anyhow, you can't prove anything from Descarte's axiom. No matter how hard he tries.

And thus you have proved your own quote. Given Descartes' axiom, you cannot prove anything.

[Asher]

This is akin to writing a paper explaining it is impossible for a man to jump from Earth to Pluto merely on his own abilities, then being proclaimed a genius and having people studying your paper for hundreds of years after your death.

Profound.

[Drogue]

Just as it's like saying it's impossible to travel faster than the speed of light?

I admit, much of Decartes' Meditations could have been thought up by many people today. In the 17th Century, it was pretty new, however (IIRC).