Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Georgie Nelson Special Request Descartes' Division of Ideas Essay

How does Descartes’ ‘division of ideas’ inform his rationalist position?

Explain how Descartes attempts to classify the different kinds of ideas that come into his mind

Briefly (but not too briefly) explain how he does classify ideas (use your excellent charts)

Explain how some ideas seem to be more 'important' than others and why that is so

Explain how Descartes' conclusions about ideas make him a rationalist (explain what a rationalist is)

My introduction given free & gratis!
Having established the certainty of one idea, that he exists as a thinking thing, Descartes wonders what kind of status the other ideas in his mind might have. His exploration of a piece of wax leads him to conclude that although his senses give him a ‘clear’ idea of the wax, it is his faculty of judgement, that allows him a ‘distinct’ idea or understanding of ‘the nature of the piece of wax’.

This is homework and it is due on Monday. And that is as close to an ‘objective’ fact as I can manage! No excuses.

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