Theories of Knowledge-MWF Mon. Oct. 7th

Descartes' steps:
I exist
God exists
God is good
God is no deceiver
I am deceived
I am the source of my own deception
(misuse of freewill)
Because God is no deceiver he has to
guarantee knowledge to those that
correctly form their beliefs

--Most false beliefs are due to misuse of
freewill=Descartes

How do we get from "I am imperfect" to "knowledge and certainty are possible"?

Imperfection=misuse of freewill
Ignorance=don't know something you should
know (sin of omission)
Stupidity=bad judgement (sin of commision)

Restrict beliefs to those "clear and distinct"=axioms/basic principles
This builds strong foundation for more
complicated belief, certainty carries
over

2 ways of knowing things:
Intuition=one step
Deduction=many steps
=a priori reasoning
no experience necessary

Arguments against Descartes:
--Don't start out with something debatable to prove something undebatable (more certain proved by less certain doesn't work)
--Proofs of God don't work
--Overestimates amount of control we have (freewill) over our beliefs

Descartes--rationalist
knowledge comes primarily through
reason, not senses