Epistemological Explanation of Sense Experience in Cartesian Thought

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Iran

2 PhD Candidate of Philosophy, University of Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

It seems that in Cartesian thought the possibility of sense experience cannot easily be put forward because of the theoretical foundations of his philosophy. He, in his masterpiece, i.e., Meditations on First Philosophy, from the very beginning tries to erase any sign of sensory world - the main subject-matter of sense experience and its pre-condition – through (ordinary or hyperbolical) doubts. His attack on senses is so giant that until Sixth Meditation they cannot be restored unless through theology by recourse to the non-deceiving God. The restoration upon which there are great differences among scholars. In our paper, we try to show that regarding to the end of Cartesian philosophy as the mastery over nature, to the extent that he explicitly calls his philosophy, “practical” as opposed to the “theoretical” philosophy of Scholastics, we cannot help but accept not only possibility of sense experience but also its necessity. This mastery over nature can only be attained, for human beings, within the realm of sense experience which is the final link among man as the thinking thing and nature as the extended one, through which the Cartesian science is to be established. Now, if sense experiences have remained unexplained in Cartesian thought, Descartes’ claim that “our philosophy makes us the lords and masters of the nature” remains unexplained, too.

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References

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