Research ArticleOpen AccessGoogle Scholar indexed
The Circle, from Descartes’ Point of View
University of Southern California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- 1 University of Southern California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Open Journal of Philosophy·Volume 07 (2017)·Pages 201–219·Published 27 May 2017·DOI10.4236/ojpp.2017.72012
Copy link · social · email
Abstract
My project is to show that despite relentless criticism from the beginning, Descartes cannot be reasonably faulted in his attempt to relieve systematic doubt or as it is sometimes called, metaphysical doubt. By “cannot be reasonably faulted” I mean that Descartes is not open criticism either for having made assumptions that were unwarranted by standards of his own time or for having made errors in reasoning. The paper seeks to analyze Descartes’ struggle with metaphysical doubt and radical skepticism in relation to issues concerning provability and truth in arithmetic that are addressed by G ? del-L ? b provability logic.
KeywordsDescartesGödel-LöbDoubtSkepticismProvability
- Arnauld, A. (1641). Fourth Set of Objections and Replies. In Cottingham et al. (Eds.), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (pp. 138-198, Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Burman, & Descartes (1648). Descartes’ Conversation with Burman. John Cottingham, Trans. 1976, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Cottingham, J., Stoothoff, R., & Murdoch, D. (1985). The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (Vol. 1 and 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Cottingham, J. (1992). The Cambridge Companion to Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Descartes (1641). Meditations on First Philosophy. In Cottingham et al. (Eds.), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (pp. 1-52, Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Descartes (1637). Discourse on Method: Part One. In Cottingham et al. (Eds.), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (pp. 11-16, Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gassendi, P. (1641). Fifth Set of Objections and Replies. In Cottingham et al. (Eds.), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (pp. 179-277, Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Loeb, L. (1992). The Cartesian Circle. In Cottingham, J. (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Malcom, N. (1959). Dreaming, (pp. 101-108). London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Van Benthem, J. (2010). Modal Logic for Open Minds (pp. 243-250). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
- Williams, B. (1978). Descartes: The Project of Pure Inquiry (pp. 72-101). New York, NY: Penguin.
- Wilson, M. (1978). Descartes (pp. 1-78). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.