Old School

Hello there, its been very hectic the past days for I havent had time to write in here. So, in efforts to keep this place as alive as possible I am posting stuff I wrote in the past. All of these things I will post have been works I have done in the past and I dont consider them that good. I think that they are alright and not so very clear. You might have to research a little to understand what I am talking about. So here goes!

Descartes Reviewed
(Find his Meditations here)

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher who wrote the controversial Meditations in 1641. At the time his work was majorly criticized, in this era, religion had much more power and say. This is how when he released his work, the church and many religious leaders opposed  and frowned upon some of the declarations made in this well thought out series of meditations. A statement that is controversial in today’s society, but powerful, is in the Third Meditation. The third meditation basically states that God, is true and that it is the highest degree. Which cannot go be fully understood without one of Descartes criteria for finding what is true. Descartes designs a “system” to prove that what one experiences is in fact real of not, he calls this “clear and distinct”. If something like a cup of water is clear and distinct it must feel to the senses as clear and distinct but also to the mind. So, back to the matter at hand, in the Third Meditation, Descartes makes the declaration that god is and must be “clear and distinct”. This declaration has a few errors, for one; How can one be “clear and distinct” about god if you cannot experience him, and two; this whole work by Descartes was published at a time where thinking otherwise would mean death. So you see the problems that arise when one truly thinks not only about the matter at hand but furthermore from the subject and its surroundings. Descartes like St. Anselm, set a very childish argument, one which is practically set up as to where you are wrong if you oppose the belief that God is in fact “that than which nothing greater can be conceived”. Descartes takes this same basic principle and only modifies the wording. God is not in fact “clear and distinct” if it was we could experience him and know for fact his existence. In addition, what kind of God, if not one that does not wish to deceive us, does not make himself “clear and distinct”, why must we suffer in the search for his love? Perhaps finding the so called unmoved mover, is the path to enlightenment? Whatever might be the case, one really might never know. However, one thing that is certain is of the oppression that Descartes and many other thinkers during this era faced if they ever dared to oppose the church. Many great thinkers were burned alive for thinking that the earth was round, and even worse to think that this God whom they were forced to venerate was in fact real. The one thing that history teaches us is that one mustn’t go on the contrary of powerful entities like the government or church; for it is only death that follows this disobedience. So this is why Descartes whole arguments seem weaker when one really puts the historical context in play. Descartes theories have reinforced many believes out there but it CAN be argued that it is based on oppression.