15、笛卡爾理論：沉思理論III
Descartes enters his Third Meditation using his general rule of truth that “...all things we conceive very clearly and distinctly are true”. However, there is one flaw to his thoughts. If God is an Evil Deceiver, then this cannot be true. Descartes proceeds to establish that God is good and does not deceive. Descartes uses three points to establish the existence of God. These points are ideas. The first one is adventitious ideas, those that come from outside experiences. The second is invented ideas, those that are derived from the imagination such as sirens and chimera. The final is innate ideas, those that are within one when they are born.
Descartes uses two more points to further establish that God exists. He uses the ideas of “infinite” and “perfect”. These two ideas, Descartes cannot account for. The only way for such things to come about would be from an infinite and perfect being such as God. These ideas have a direct relationship with God. In order for a finite being such as Descartes to have a concept of infinite, it must have been planted there by an infinite being such as God. Descartes concludes this idea to be true because one cannot derive the idea of infinite by negating the finite. An example of this would be the use of a number line. The number line will never be able to illustrate infinity. One could negate every number on a number line and still not arrive at infinity.
Therefore, Descartes concludes that God does exist and therefore is not an Evil Deceiver. Because God has supplied us with the innate ideas of perfection and infinity, God, therefore, must be infinite and perfect. Descartes states that, “Whence it is clear enough that he cannot be a deceiver, for the natural light teaches us that deceit stems necessarily from some defect.” Since God is perfect he is not an Evil Deceiver.
16、笛卡爾理論：沉思理論IV
It is important to realize that by the time Descartes has reached his Fourth Meditation, he has proved three important things. The first is that doubt is not universal. The second is that there is a general rule of truth. The third is that God exists and cannot be an Evil Deceiver. However, Descartes raises a question: If God exists and cannot be an Evil Deceiver, then why are humans imperfect and perpetually making errors? Descartes explains this through the explanation of free will. Descartes states that God has given all humans free will. This is the cause of human error. Because humans have free will, they are able to make choices and decisions free from the influence of God. Sometimes free will interferes with God’s ability to help humans and therefore, humans sometimes make poor decisions. If God did not give humans free will, then God would play a direct role in every decision made by humans. It is because God gives humans free will that allows for human error.
17、笛卡爾理論：沉思理論V
Descartes Fifth and Sixth Meditations begin with the establishment of his remaining doubts and the application of what he has discovered. The first question deals with the essence of color, mathematical, and geometrical truths. The second is the existence of people and things. The third is determining the difference between dreams and reality. Descartes reiterates that God is not an Evil Deceiver and therefore he can clearly conceive something to be true. He reiterates that if he conceives God correctly then God is perfect. Imperfection is not compatible with God’s omnipotence. A non-existent thing cannot be perfect. Even a non-existent perfect thing is imperfect and all perfect things are perfect. Descartes also restates that a perfect thing cannot deceive.
With this knowledge, Descartes proceeds to solve his second problem. The existence of corporeal （physical things） exists with certainty. Since God is not an Evil Deceiver, the idea of physical things is accurate. Although some perceptions will still be blurry and may confuse Descartes, objects do indeed exist. He concludes that he just has to be more judgmental of those perceptions. But as concerning other things, which are either only particular, as, for example, that the sun is of such a size and shape, etc., or are perceived less clearly and distinctly, as in the case of light, sound and pain and so on, although they are very doubtful and uncertain, nevertheless, from the fact alone that God is not a deceiver, and has consequently permitted no falsity in people’s opinions. Descartes now knows for certain that he has a body. Descartes realizes that, “...I have a body, which is ill disposed when I feel pain, which needs to eat and drink when I have feelings of hunger or thirst etc.” Because of these feeling that Descartes has and because God is not an Evil Deceiver, then Descartes is indeed lodged in a body and is an entire entity with it.
Descartes finally analyzes his third doubt. He now has the ability to distinguish between being awake and dreaming. “When we are awake”, Descartes states, “mind flows in an uninterrupted, continuous sequence. When we are dreaming, our mind does not flow in a consistent, and undisturbed sequence. When a person has a break in the consistency of events, they are dreaming. ...when I perceive things which I clearly know both the place they come from and that in which they are, and the time at which they appear to me, and when, without any interruption, I can link the perception I have of them with the whole of the rest of my life, I am fully assured that it is not in sleep that I am perceiving them but while I am awake.”
After establishing certainty to his doubts, Descartes states, “And I must reject all the doubts of the last few days as hyperbolic and ridiculous, particularly the general uncertainty about sleep, which I could not distinguish for a wakeful state...” With that, Descartes concludes his meditations and uncertainties.
18、休謨的哲學
David Hume was an imperialist philosopher who revolutionized scientific argument and methodology with his skepticism. His arguments about the way people though up to his day, and still today, are fundamental in explaining how we gain knowledge and what we do with this knowledge.
Hume helped pave a road leading toward a higher state of consciousness for humanity with his theory concerning the perceptions of the mind. He divided the minds perception into two distinct groups: impression and ideas. With these two classifications, Hume rationalized the depths of human understanding. Impressions consist of the perception regarding all that is seen, felt and heard. Ideas are formulated thoughts based upon impressions. They are the perceptions of the mind involved with thought rather than experience.
Hume used impressions to test the relevance of ideas through his microscope system. This theory challenged the mind to test out inconsistent ideas by means of the impressions. The essence of ideas and impression defines the nature of the mind and all that it perceives. Together they rationalize clear and distinct thoughts and sensations. Impressions are lively perceptions that implore all the sensation and emotion that the mind perceives. They are not misleading, for their essence is based entirely on experience. It is perception that ignites the way all is felt, seen, or heard. External causes or objects affect the senses, influencing the way the mind perceives things. For instance to understand the essence of a rose is to recognize that it is red, the pedals feel like silk, it smells of sweet perfume and it evokes happiness. All of these perceptions are derived from the senses. Beautiful words could never conjure enough realism to replace the reality of seeing a rose.
19、盧梭的政治哲學
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s greatest work were published in 1762—The Social Contract. Rousseau society itself is an implicit agreement to live together for the good of everyone with individual equality and freedom. However, people have enslaved themselves by giving over their power to governments which are not truly sovereign because they do not promote the general will. Rousseau believed that only the will of all the people together granted sovereignty. Various forms of government are instituted to legislate and enforce the laws. He wrote, “The first duty of the legislator is to make the laws conformable to the general will, the first rule of public economy is that the administration of justice should be conformable to the laws.” His natural political philosophy echoes the way of Lao Tzu:“The greatest talent a ruler can possess is to disguise his power, in order to render it less odious, and to conduct the State so peaceably as to make it seem to have no need of conductors.”
Rousseau was one of the first strong voices for democratic principles. “There can be no patriotism without liberty, no liberty without virtue, no virtue without citizens; create citizens, and you have everything you need; without them, you will have nothing but debased slaves, from the rulers of the State downwards.” In the civil order, there can be any sure and legitimate rule of administration, men being taken as they are and laws as they might be. In this inquiry we shall endeavor always to unite what right sanctions with what is prescribed by interest, in order that justice and utility may in no case be divided. We enter upon this task without proving the importance of the subject. We shall be asked if we are the prince or the legislator, to write on politics. We answer that we am neither, and that is why we do so.
20、洛克觀點：物質與思想
In his essay, Supposition of He Knows Not What, John Locke offers the reader an intriguing view of substances and ideas. He argues for the existence of substances in our world because there must logically be something greater than the ideas and thoughts that occupy our minds. His argument for their existence maintains that we cannot see substances in our realms, but we can perceive them and note their effects on other things around us. Locke first states that there are too many ideas in the world to stand alone. We cannot see these ideas that form in our minds, but we know that the ideas we have cannot persists as one single idea, because everything we think is the complication of many ideas together.
Since the simple ideas we have cannot exist alone, there must be something larger behind them, and those, Locke asserts, are substances. Locke maintains that we only see substances in our world as ideas, for they are too complex for us to perceive. Because of the qualities of our ideas, we are able to perceive that they exist. The only evidence we have for this belief is that we can put together ideas on our own, and we can also put together ideas about substances, therefore these substances must create our ideas. We perceive substances as ideas, because they are too complicated for our minds and far from our realm of existence. Therefore, Locke’s notion of substances reverts back to Plato’s idea of a form:substances are things that underlie all thought that we cannot perceive on our own, but must exist in another place for they form our foundations of thought and ideas.
21、佛學智慧
Throughout history people have wondered about the universe in which we live in and looked for a purpose of our existence. Many Western philosophers believed that an individual is a separate entity from every other individual and nature. In the Buddhist belief, however, there is no separation between us and any other person or animal. The goal of living and dying is to eventually see the world as it actually is instead of the illusion that we see with our senses. This state of enlightenment is known as Nirvana. To reach Nirvana, it is necessary to give up attachments to the things of this world, see the interconnectedness of everything, and clear your mind so that you can see things the way they actually are.
In the Western world we are very attached to our possessions, to the people that we care about, and especially to ourselves. Most Westerners would be glad to sacrifice something to help another person or even an animal in need if they could. But most people would not sacrifice something very important to them and very few would give up their lives in the spirit of compassion. On the other hand, because the Buddhist belief is that we are all connected to each other, by helping another, we help ourselves and by hurting another, we hurt ourselves. To be able sacrifice shows that we truly understand that there is more than just this life.