In this assignment, you are to take one of the Reading Reflection Drafts you have already written, and use that as a springboard for writing a more rigorous, polished, 1500-2000 word (5-8 double-spaced pages) short paper.
You may, alternatively, choose to develop your own topic for this paper, but you will need to get my approval for your topic in order to do so. In order to get an alternative topic approved, you must send me your topic before 4/23/20.
YOU MUST MAKE USE OF AT LEAST TWO ACADEMIC SECONDARY SOURCES IN YOUR RESPONSE. I have provided some potential secondary sources for many of the Reflection Draft assignments. Be sure to cite these sources in a way that enables your reader to follow up on your citation if they need to, as well as clearly distinguish between your understanding of what others have said about these issues and where your own thought is building off those insights. If you aren’t sure whether a particular source counts as “scholarly,” please ask (the general guideline to follow here is that the author should be a professional philosopher associated with some university, articles should be from peer-reviewed academic journals or books published by academic publishers).
this is what the response draft question was we had to answer:
Descartes goes through quite a bit of trouble convincing himself to adopt a fairly radical sort of skepticism in Meditation I. Over the course of the remaining Meditations, he attempts to work back from that skepticism to a firm foundation that he can be certain of and avoid the risk of error moving forward. He argues the he can be certain of his own existence, that he is a thinking thing, for God’s existence as an infinite substance, and finally, in Meditations V-VI, for material things (including his own body).
In your judgment, does Descartes adhere to his own standards of certainty beyond any possible doubt throughout the Meditations? If so, walk your reader through a sketch of the arguments he offers and explain why each step is sound. If not, identify where he seems to be abandoning his own standard and why he should not be permitted to make the step in question.
We also have to use 2 secondary sources (academic of course)
Answer preview
Secondly, the philosopher used foundationalism in Meditation II to discover propositions that could not be doubted as the foundation of knowledge. It is one of the ways that Descartes proved to be adhering to his standards in developing an understanding of the universe. According to Broughton (123), Descartes used the argument of what cannot be doubted as the foundation of knowledge to avoid previous fallacies and skepticism that he had experienced. The resulting strategy in foundationalism centered on what cannot be questioned, and the argument of human existence or the cogito. Furtherly, in meditation III, Rene Descartes developed rationalism and the cartesian circle to maintain the coherence of his arguments on the universe’s existence. Also, the ontological argument was profound in this part, which showcased the consistency and adherence of the philosopher’s standards beyond doubt.
