So far so good! Interested to see where this dismantlement goes—it’s been probably 15 years since I looked at Descartes, and I’ve not gotten as far as him yet in my self-reeducation program. Thanks for sharing!
Great post, I’m looking forward to the next part. Been following Pints for a while, and have heard you mention some philosophy stuff along these lines. Have you read Pascal? His Pensees are some of my favorite short-form philosophical thoughts.
Good stuff, Matt. I think it was Kreeft who said that there were three eras in philosophy: ancient, which concerned itself with metaphysics, modern which concerned itself with epistemology, and contemporary (I don’t remember the exact word he used) which concerned itself with language. That said, I’ve typically stuck to the first era because I’ve found their thinkers, like Aristotle and Aquinas (I think you’d like him) the most fun and satisfying, and haven’t really moved on to the epistemology era. These posts made me want to change that. Thanks for the nudge!
Great stuff. I’m a convert and prior to that I had come to similar conclusions. Looking forward to what else you say on the matter.
I also think there is a parallel between Descartes doubt and the doubt of Protestants who claim sola scriptura. Many will say “we can’t trust our senses due to sin” therefore, we need an unshakable source of truth, i.e., the scripture. The my exchange cogito ergo sum for sola scriptura, but both lead to the same place, relativism.
The New World was discovered around that time too, right? That also would have been wildly disorienting.
I was going to say that it's strange that Descartes swapped empirical evidence for subjective perception as more certain, but if all the empirical evidence you had is flying out the window, it makes sense that you'd stick with what would seem unchanged in comparison.
I see the flaws, but it makes it way more understandable.
So far so good! Interested to see where this dismantlement goes—it’s been probably 15 years since I looked at Descartes, and I’ve not gotten as far as him yet in my self-reeducation program. Thanks for sharing!
Great post, I’m looking forward to the next part. Been following Pints for a while, and have heard you mention some philosophy stuff along these lines. Have you read Pascal? His Pensees are some of my favorite short-form philosophical thoughts.
Good stuff, Matt. I think it was Kreeft who said that there were three eras in philosophy: ancient, which concerned itself with metaphysics, modern which concerned itself with epistemology, and contemporary (I don’t remember the exact word he used) which concerned itself with language. That said, I’ve typically stuck to the first era because I’ve found their thinkers, like Aristotle and Aquinas (I think you’d like him) the most fun and satisfying, and haven’t really moved on to the epistemology era. These posts made me want to change that. Thanks for the nudge!
Great stuff. I’m a convert and prior to that I had come to similar conclusions. Looking forward to what else you say on the matter.
I also think there is a parallel between Descartes doubt and the doubt of Protestants who claim sola scriptura. Many will say “we can’t trust our senses due to sin” therefore, we need an unshakable source of truth, i.e., the scripture. The my exchange cogito ergo sum for sola scriptura, but both lead to the same place, relativism.
Philosophy is not a strong suit of mine, but I'm learning a lot! Thanks!
The New World was discovered around that time too, right? That also would have been wildly disorienting.
I was going to say that it's strange that Descartes swapped empirical evidence for subjective perception as more certain, but if all the empirical evidence you had is flying out the window, it makes sense that you'd stick with what would seem unchanged in comparison.
I see the flaws, but it makes it way more understandable.