scholarly journals Thought Experiment Analyses of René Descartes' Cogito

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Hertogh
Keyword(s):  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Modus Ponens ◽  
New Science ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Human Kind

ABSTRACT: René Descartes' Cogito is an example of a paradigmatic thought experiment, herald of both subjectivism and new science in Europe's Modern Age, that seems to have escaped the attention of thought experiment philosophers. On deep analysis, the Cogito appears as universal instantiation (or modus ponens with implicit major 'whatever has the property of thinking, exists'). The Cogito has strong rhetorical effects for it narratively generalizes from I to all human kind, and its historical and philosophical success can be explained from its concise enthymematic structure that rings true in many possible senses. We consider it a preeminent example of a thought experiment as it states the power of thinking as its very contents. From Descartes' methodology of doubt we can conclude that, e.g., on a Wittgensteinian interpretation, the Cogito is a logical thought experiment rather than a psychological one.

scholarly journals Incorporación de las nuevas tecnologías en la enseñanza y desarrollo del pensamiento lógico-matemático [Incorporation of the new technologies in the education and development of the thought logician-mathematician]

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Alberto Muñoz Arango
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Mathematical Thought ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Nuevas Tecnologías ◽  
Mathematical Problems ◽  
Education And Development

Resumen Es frecuente encontrar una tendencia marcada en los estudiantes que presentan dificultades en los ECAES, a pesar de haberse preparado para ellos. Una de las razones detectadas radica en la falta de entendimiento y planteamiento de soluciones de los diferentes ejercicios propuestos en dichas pruebas; posiblemente una de los inconvenientes mayores es que no se efectúa una lectura y reflexión apropiada que les permita procesar la información y posteriormente plantear y desarrollar el problema para la búsqueda de la solución. En éste artículo se pretende motivar a educadores y estudiantes para que incursionen en la ciencia llamada Heurística, que antiguamente tenía por objeto el estudio de las reglas y los métodos del descubrimiento y la invención y a cuyo desarrollo contribuyeron importantes personajes de ciencia tales como Newton, Leibniz, René Descartes y Bolzano entre otros. En la era moderna, la Heurística comprende el método que conduce a la solución de problemas, en particular las operaciones mentales, útiles en este proceso; actualmente con la divulgación de las innumerables herramientas informáticas se hace necesario incorporar el componente tecnológico que complemente el desarrollo y la búsqueda de soluciones a los problemas matemáticos y de ésta forma mejorar el pensamiento lógico matemático. Palabras ClaveHeurística, planteamiento y solución de problemas, herramientas informáticas, pensamiento lógico matemático, Matlab.   Abstract It is frequent to find a trend marked in the students who present difficulties in the ECAES, in spite of having been prepared for them. One of detected reasons takes root in the lack of understanding and exposition of solutions of the different exercises proposed in the above mentioned tests; possibly one of the major disadvantages is that there is not effected a reading and appropriate reflection that allows them to process the information and later to consider and to develop the problem for the search of the solution. In this one article tries to be motivated to educators and students in order that they penetrate into the so called Heuristic science, which former took as an object the study of the rules and the methods of the discovery and the invention and to whose development such important prominent figures of science contributed as Newton, Leibniz, René Descartes y Bolzano between others. In the modern age, the Heuristic one he understands the method that he leads to the solution of problems, especially the mental, useful operations in this process; nowadays with the spreading of the innumerable IT tools it becomes necessary to incorporate the technological component that complements the development and the search of solutions to the mathematical problems and of this one it forms to improve the logical mathematical thought.Keywords Heuristic, exposition and solution of mathematical problems, IT tools, logical mathematical thought, Matlab.

The Price of Truth: Reciprocity, Giving, and Generosity in the Philosophy of René Descartes

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 147-170
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
Homo Oeconomicus ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Economic Thinking ◽  
Selfish Interest

The article provides a comparison of the concept of homo œconomicus with the core theses of René Descartes’ moral philosophy. The first section draws on the work of the contemporary Western philosopher Anselm Jappe in which Descartes’ philosophy is held to be the cornerstone of the established view and current scientific definitions of homo œconomicus as the fundamental and indispensable agent of capitalistic relations. As opposed to this “common sense” position in the modern social sciences, the second section of the article builds upon Pierre Bourdieu’s Anthropologie économique (2017) to demystify the notion of homo œconomicus. The article then examines some aspects of modern philosophical anthropology that show odd traces of Descartes’ thinking and that are regularly applied in economic science as well as in the critique of economic thinking as such. These are the concepts of mutuality, giving, exchange and generosity, and they are regarded as central to the philosopher’s moral doctrine.The author concludes that the philosophical doctrine of generosity has very little in common with the bourgeois ideology of utility which implies an instrumental relationship between subjects: in Caretesian moral philosophy the Other is neither an object of influence nor a means to achieve someone’s personal goals nor a windowless monad. Generosity certainly has its economic aspects, but these do not include accumulating wealth in the bourgeois sense. It is more in the realm of the aristocratic practice of making dispensations. All throughout his life Decartes may be viewed as exhibiting a peculiar kind of nobility in which the desire to give, endow and sacrifice outweighs any selfish interest. The vigorous pursuit of well-being gives way to a quest for the leisure required to pursue intellectual activity, and care for oneself does not preclude attending to and loving the Other, whatever form it may take.

La disparition des formes aristotéliciennes. À propos d'une démarche clandestine dans les Méditations

Dialogue ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-548
Author(s):  
Georges Moyal
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
René Descartes

RÉSUMÉMême si l'appréhension que l'on peut avoir des formes aristotéliciennes résulte de ce qu'Aristote nomme «induction», rien ne nécessite que leurs composantes soient reliées entre elles de façon intelligible, comme le sont, au contraire, les propriétés de la matière. C'est ce qui porte René Descartes à en débarrasser les sciences par une démarche effectuée subrepticement dans sa VIe Méditation, et à leur substituer la matière, dénominateur commun des êtres naturels. C'est cette démarche — elle continue d’éluder certains de ses lecteurs —, que nous tentons de mettre au jour dans ce qui suit.

Beautiful Surfaces

Nuncius ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-287
Author(s):  
Eleanor Chan
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Latin Translation ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Critical Interpretation

The assumption that the Cartesian bête-machine is the invention of René Descartes (1596–1650) is rarely contested. Close examination of Descartes’ texts proves that this is a concept founded not on the basis of his own writings, but a subsequent critical interpretation, which developed and began to dominate his work after his death. Descartes’ Treatise on Man, published posthumously in two rival editions, Florentius Schuyl’s Latin translation De Homine (1662), and Claude Clerselier’s Traité de l’ homme, has proved particularly problematic. The surviving manuscript copies of the Treatise on Man left no illustrations, leaving both editors the daunting task of producing a set of images to accompany and clarify the fragmented text. In this intriguing case, the images can be seen to have spoken louder than the text which they illustrated. This paper assesses Schuyl’s choice to represent Descartes’ Man in a highly stylized manner, without superimposing Clerselier’s intentions onto De Homine.

Princess Elisabeth and the Problem of Mind-Body Interaction

Hypatia ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Tollefsen
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Body Interaction ◽  
René Descartes

This paper focuses on Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia's philosophical views as exhibited in her early correspondence with Rene Descartes. Elisabeth's criticisms of Descartes's interactionism as well as her solution to the problem of mind-body interaction are examined in detail. The aim here is to develop a richer picture of Elisabeth as a philosophical thinker and to dispel the myth that she is simply a Cartesian muse.

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