Philosophy of Skepticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Philosophy of Skepticism - Essay Example Being born in the 80s made me very much aware of the traditions, beliefs and fads during that time. My personal interests depended on the interests of the people I live with. If I have lived during the time of slavery, my interest would have been related to freedom and equality. There is no absolute freedom but I have the free will to choose which information and beliefs I would want to base my life upon. I would prefer not to get everything that I ever wanted. Suffering is part of man's life which is destined to be imperfect and man has to strive to make the best out of what we have been blessed with. Man always wants what he does not have. 3. Plato's cave-dwellers discover that the source of their so- called knowledge, their senses has been giving them false information about the world. How reliable are our senses as a source of knowledge Plato rejects the senses as a source of knowledge. Do you agree with him Why or why not In consonance with his theory of Idealism, Plato propounded the view that man, in his present earthly existence is only an imperfect copy of his real, original self, the perfect man, in the realm of ideas. In such a perfect state as pure mind, man knew all things by direct intuition. Thus, according to Plato, man was omniscient, all-knowing, before he came to be born into this world. With his separation however from the paradise of truth and knowledge and his long exile on earth, he forgot most of the knowledge he had. To Plato the ideas are inborn, already present in the mind of man from birth, but these are partly forgotten memories obscured owing to man's life term confinement on earth, in the prison house of the senses. They only have to be revived and recalled. The things that we perceive on earth, according to Plato, are merely shadows, pale reminders of the truths man already knew truly and fully before his terrestrial imprisonment. I disagree with Plato on his idea about the senses. I believe that through sensation and perception, man is able to learn and acquire knowledge and ideas. When we sense something, it can be considered as first-hand information because that is something that can be empirically proven. 4. Does Descartes ever prove in his first meditation that we are not dreaming Why or why not We might appreciate the philosophical viewpoint that Descartes develops to be discernible and defined by the skepticism and cynicism he communicates in the First Meditation. He starts by asking how he can be certain or sure of anything and then develops all kinds of imaginative and outlandish reasons as to why he have to to mistrust his senses. Philosophy ever since has been known a constant skepticism toward knowledge claims, and the very question of how we can come to know anything with certainty has been much argued. Skepticism also informs the mind-body predicament which has come to identify our formation of the human mind. Descartes develops a conception of the mind where the senses and the imagination are also mental faculties. Further, he states that we are essentially thinking things that can be acquainted with our minds clearly and distinctly, but must exert much effort and strive harder to come to an understanding of our bodies. Most significant, he comes up with a very intelligent distinction between mind and body. Mind is essentially think