What Was Descartes's Purpose for Undertaking the Meditations? What Basic or Common-Sense Things Did He Doubt?

1. What was Descartes's purpose for undertaking the meditations? What basic or common-sense things did he doubt? (cite at least three)

The reason why Descartes undertook the meditations because he feels that many of the things that he believed in for the longest time, has been actually false. Therefore, he decided to set aside all of his previous beliefs then start again. However, he is not going to find fault in everything, but only the foundation of those beliefs are enough. Moreover, He decided to only believe in the things that he has completely no doubts on.

One of the things that he doubted was the human’s senses. Descartes said that he sometimes believe in his dreams like it was the reality. His dreams would sometimes be really realistic that his senses would actually fall for it and believe it to be the reality. Therefore, he said that he really doubts the human senses. Another thing that he doubted was the studies that are based on composite things like Astronomy, Physics and the like. He argues that unlike other simple studies like Geometry, there is no argument that a square has 4 sides and a triangle has 3 because it simply is, in Physics and other studies that was based on composite things, there are some argument against it and therefore, since these studies are not universal truth yet, he will still doubt these studies. He also doubted God’s omnipotence. He believe that if God was really omnipotent then he wouldn’t have made human vulnerable to deception. He would not have made anything that would cause deception to human. Therefore, he doubted God’s omnipotence.

2. Why does Descartes conclude that the proposition "I am, I exist" must be true? Explain his reasoning concerning the evil spirit who deceives him.

Descartes said that although it is certain that there is nothing certain, he believes that he must exists. Although not physically, but there must be something in him that exists so that the evil spirit has someone or something to deceive. Otherwise, it would be impossible to deceive something that does not exists in the first place. Therefore, he concluded that “I am, I exist” which he claims to be necessary for him to be deceived by the evil spirit. Moreover, he concluded that “I am, I exist” because he thinks. He argues that he cannot be non-existent if he is thinking. There is no way a thing is thinking but is not existing. Although one can also say that when a thing is walking, it must exists as well, however, Descartes argues that the act of walking can be doubted while thinking cannot be doubted because the act of doubting, itself is a way of thinking already.

3. Why is the nature of the human mind better known than the body? Discuss Descartes's arguments and examples.

Descartes argues that human mind is better known than the body because the body senses only pick up pieces of information that are sent to the mind but if these pieces of information are somehow altered but the essence still remained the same, the senses would have no way to tell that. The senses only tells what is presently happening. Only the human mind is capable of connecting all of these pieces of information and make a conclusion. An example that Descartes made was the wax. The senses were the ones that tells the mind that the wax is solid and when it was placed near the fire, the senses were also the one that told the mind that the wax is flexible. However, the senses cannot identify that these two forms of the wax are the same wax. The human mind is the one responsible for connecting all of these information and tell the person that the wax, whether melted or solid, is the same thing, they are still wax. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that the human mind is better than the body.

4. Is there a character or characters in the movie "Memento" who are comparable to Descartes's evil spirit, deceiving Leonard Shelby? Who are they and how did they deceive him? What, if anything, can Lenny ever be certain of?

One of the characters in the movie “Memento” that is trying to deceive Leonard Shelby is the lady named Natalie. The moment that she found out that Leonard had this condition, she immediately thought of using him to get rid of Dodd. There was a scene wherein Natalie brought Leonard to her home and at first she was friendly to him and was talking to him while secretly keeping all the writing materials and then she pretends that she went out of the house but was really waiting until Leonard’s memory reset, then she entered into the house again then acted like she had been gone for a while and this time she was angry and was making Leonard angry as well so Leonard would be provoked to hit her. After getting hit by Leonard, Natalie went out again and waited in the car until Leonard’s mind resetted. And went back in and pretended that Dodd was the one responsible for her wound in her face.

Another character in the movie that deceived Leonard is Teddy. However, according to his account, he was actually helping Leonard to exact his revenge to the John G. that supposedly raped and killed her wife but then apparently, Leonard had already killed this John G. but forgot all about it and so Teddy tried to find another John G. for Leonard to kill again, hoping that Leonard would remember this time around. While helping Leonard, Teddy was actually making money on the side. He was, in a way, using Leonard to go to a drug deal and kill the man so that Teddy could keep the drugs and the money.

Another character that I think was deceiving Leonard is Leonard himself. I came to this conclusion because in the scene where Teddy revealed to Leonard that he in fact, had already killed the John G. he was looking for. Leonard cannot accept the fact and he actually burned the picture of him smiling after he killed John G. Moreover, he wrote down the plate number of Teddy and planned to tattoo it on his thigh as one of the “facts” that he know about John G. In a way, he is kind of deceiving himself because he already knows that he had killed John G. already but he is still denying it and burning the evidence while planting new ones so that it would look like he has not found John G. yet.

Leonard and be certain of the things that he still remembers prior to the accident, like his name, address, job, and that he has a wife. Moreover, he can also be certain that someone raped and assaulted her wife as well as knocking him out and caused his condition to him. However, it was revealed that some of the things that he actually believed in are actually false. Like how he claimed that his wife was not diabetic but was in fact diabetic and how Sammy Jankis had a wife.

1. What was Descartes's purpose for undertaking the