each should be 250 words and they are 3 questions 1). Today, there’s a lot of talk about so-called “fake” news. This was an idea coined by the current president of the United States. It is unfortunately used to attack the news media — but equally unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your point of view) it raises an important question: so how can you trust the news you see, watch, or hear? How can you know what is “fake” as opposed to what is “real”? What is the difference between “fake” and “real” and how can you know that!? This question of the real vs. the fake is exactly what Descartes wanted to settle once and for all. So, you see, there is a deeper problem here that goes beyond the Trump name-calling against new reporters as being “fake news”. The question is, what makes any news “fake” or “real” … and how can you tell the difference between them? Trump seems to think he knows — but does he? Do you? 2). Descartes seems to need God to get him from the certainty he thinks he’s found for his own personal, individual existence, to the whole wide world beyond his own individual mind. Descartes thinks of God as a Being that has what were call the “perfections” of existence: that is, God is conceived as a Being that is all knowing, all loving, all powerful, ever-present, etc. God is the reason and ultimate explanation for all things, and for existence itself — God is the “ground” upon which all things “move and have their being” (to quote a famous Christian formula that comes from the Bible). In this view, no God = nothing at all. Yet, even after thinking of God in these terms, Descartes refuses to allow God’s existence to be merely a matter of private, personal “faith”. Descartes seeks to prove in some rational way that God exists; God can be known through and by reason, not just by faith! Do you think that, today, this idea of God as an infinitely “perfect” being is still alive? What does this concept mean to you — even if you personally don’t believe it? Do you think that the concept of “proof” makes sense here? If not, then is it all just “faith”? What’s the difference between “faith” and “reason”? Must faith and reason remain separate? 3). So Descartes spends the whole time in this book, which you’ve now finished reading, trying to prove two simple things, and one not so simple (rather huge) thing. The simple things: I exist; and a whole wide world apart from me exists, including other people and other things. The not so simple: God exists. But at the end of the day, do you think that Descartes achieves his goals? What do you think of how he tries to achieve his goals — first, doubt everything; then, come to be convinced that at least I exist; then prove that God exists and doesn’t deceive me or anyone else (the ultimate non-fake news source); and then, since I’m “strongly inclined” to think there are real objects external from me, I’m able to be convinced, finally and at long last, that there really is a whole wide world out there, waiting for me to explore to and to know it more deeply. Is Descartes just proving what we already know, or have we discovered something important on this journey from doubt to absolute certainty?
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