The Rationalist Education理性主义教育.pptVIP

Archetypes of Wisdom Douglas J. Soccio Chapter 9 The Rationalist: Rene Descartes Learning Objectives On completion of this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: What is rationalism? What is the coherence theory of truth? What is the “methodic doubt”? What are innate ideas? What are a priori ideas? What is a posteriori knowledge? What is skepticism? What is cogito? What is the “evil genius”? What is materialism? What is Cartesian dualism? What is the ontological argument? What is the mind-body argument? The Problem of Authority The origins of modern philosophy lie in: The proliferation of scientific advances. The loss of central authority by the Roman Catholic church. The decline of a stable social order as a result of that loss of authority. The mind of René Descartes. René Descartes René Descartes (1596-1650) was born into an old and respected family in the French province of Touraine. After completing his studies as the Jesuit college at La Flèche, he earned degrees in law at the University of Poitiers. On November 10, 1619, he had a revelation in which he “discovered the foundations of a wonderful new science.” He believed he had been divinely encouraged to establish a universal method of reasoning, based on mathematical principles, which would guarantee the absolutely certain truth of its results. The Solitary Intellect Solitary and secretive, Descartes preferred to avoid the distractions and commotion of city life and social involvements. He lived alone most of his life, and during a twenty-year period lived in twenty different houses. Living this way, he was able to study philosophy, geometry, physics, optics, circulation, and other topics. In September 1649, he became a tutor for the Queen of Sweden. But the weather and his lifestyle got the best of him, and he died of pneumonia on February 11, 1650 at age fifty-three. Rationalism Rationalism is an epistemological position in which reason is said to be the primary sour