Thursday, February 14, 2008
Meditation One: Doubt
Let's say your trying to bake a cake and it calls for 2 cups of flour. You measure that out, pour it into the mixing bowl and then you stopped what you were doing to answer the phone. When you came back you can not remember how many cups you already put into the bowl so you go and pour another cup (thinking you needed it). In actuality, you now put in 3 cups. You realize this after you already started mixing it. Now you have to start over again because the cake will be very very dry. In science and math if your ending or result of a problam is wrong you have to "knock everything down" and start from the beginning (scratch) again. Whatever was built upon truth that is false will crumble right back to the beginning stage to became true, meaning, you are better off starting out a problem containing doubt then to have a confidence and watch the problem fail and have to start over again. Descartes describes the four things he needed to do in order to remain sane and not have any doubt. He said he needed to free his mind of all cares, have a period of leisurely tranquility, be secluded, and apply himself 100%. What I don't undersatnd is why Descartes has all this doubt built up.
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3 comments:
I feel that doubt is a natural and normal thing. Think about it...aren't you very doubtful at times, even though you truely have no reason to be? I am. Say an exam question comes around and you narrow down the answers to the one you think is right, you will still have doubt that there is a chance you may have gotten that particular one wrong, just because when it came down to it, you could not just pick the right answer out of four, you first had to take away the three options you thought weren't right. Doubt is all around us. Sometimes all you need is some piece and quiet and to just focus. Doubt should then be some-what allevaited after your reduce the amount stress suffocating you.
I would have to agree with what you said! It is all around us, and we face it in our everyday lives. The test example was a good example. I just pray to God that I get it right haha.. does Decartes explain more about doubt in this chapter? because it was very sudden for him to be speaking of it.
I think Descartes has his doubts just as we do. The baking the cake example brings me to say that in some situations you don't have to start from "scratch" again. For example, sometimes you are certain where you made the mistake and you can adjust or change something to fix it. Parts of a math problem can lead you to a wrong answer but some parts of it I'm sure your certain.
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