While struggling with the ideas
presented by René Descartes (1596-1650), John Locke (1632-1704), George Berkeley
(1685-1753) and Bertrand Russel (1872-1970), many notions came and went in my
mind. This only made me want to delve
further into what knowledge truly is and study the nature of mind. What is mind?
Is there knowledge and if so, what is it? These thoughts all started with my natural
(and religious) inclination to prove objective realism but in the end, that
proved to be more challenging and perhaps an impossible endeavor. I wish to jot down my thoughts that are
developing in my mind so that I can continuously reflect upon it, develop it,
or perhaps come to a point of total rejection of the thoughts presented
below. I do not wish to convey that I am
at a loss as these are what I believe to be certain at the moment but I only
wish to accept that I’ve arrived at these thoughts recently and in a recent
future, I may arrive at another.
In consideration of René Descartes’ Meditations, there
seems to be some problems with where he heads with scepticism and even where he
begins. Indeed, it was surprising to see
Descartes write about the existence of God right after he explains his reason
for sceptical thinking in his Meditations.
I can see that he implements an ontological argument similar to St.
Anselm’s in this case but where he moves from doubting all obtained
knowledge to any notion related to God seems problematic. Any conventional concept of God, and
especially the God of classical theism, must be taught and must be a knowledge
obtained through teachings. After
establishing that all these knowledge can be doubted, one cannot talk about ideas
in his mind being the proof of existence of God.
