托福聽力哲學類考點：笛卡爾

　　Descartes’s Philosophy

　　笛卡爾被廣泛認為是西方近代哲學的奠基人,他第一個創(chuàng)立了一套完整的哲學體系。哲學上,笛卡爾是一個二元論者以及理性主義者。笛卡爾認為,人類應該可以使用數學的方法–也就是理性–來進行哲學思考。他相信,理性比感官的感受更可靠。

　　Background information：

　　Rene Descartes was a French philosopher,mathematician and writer who spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic. Hehas been dubbed the father of modern philosophy, and much subsequent Western philosophyis a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day.

　　Modern foundationalism was initiated byFrench Enlightenment philosopherReneDescartes. In his Meditations, Descarteschallenged the contemporary principles of philosophy by arguing that everythinghe knew he learnt from or through his senses. He used various arguments tochallenge the reliability of the senses, citing previous errors and thepossibilities that he was dreaming or being deceived by an Evil Demon.Descartes attempted to establish the secure foundations for knowledge to avoidskepticism. He contrasted the information provided by senses, which is unclearand uncertain, with the truths of geometry, which are clear and distinct.Geometrical truths are also certain and indubitable; Descartes thus attemptedto find truths which were clear and distinct because they would be indubitablytrue and a suitable foundation for knowledge. His method was to question all ofhis beliefs until he reached something clear and distinct that was indubitablytrue. The result was his cogito ergo sum – 'I think therefore I am', or thebelief that he was thinking – as his indubitable belief suitable as afoundation for knowledge. This resolved Descartes' problem of the Evil Demon –the possibility that he was being deceived by an Evil Demon, rendering all ofhis beliefs about the external world false. Even if his beliefs about theexternal world were false, his beliefs about what he was experiencing werestill indubitably true, even if those perceptions do not relate to anything inthe world.

　　Knowledge points：

　　1. 笛卡爾被譽為現代哲學之父。

　　2. 笛卡爾挑戰(zhàn)當代哲學原理。他用各種理由來挑戰(zhàn)感官的可靠性,引用之前的錯誤,以及他可能在做夢或者被惡夢誤導的各種可能性。

　　3. 笛卡爾對比不確定的感官信息和清楚明白的幾何學。從這里他悟出一個道理:他必須承認的一件事就是他自己在懷疑。而當人在懷疑時,他必定在思考,由此他推出了著名的哲學命題—“我思故我在”。

　　Vocabulary prediction：

　　Illusion 幻覺

　　Deceive 欺騙

　　Mirage 海市蜃樓

　　Shimmer 閃爍

　　Test Point – TPO28L1

　　Professor

　　Now, for a very different view, let’s turnto another philosopher—René Descartes.

　　Descartes thought that you have to go muchdeeper to find the foundations. He believed that our senses are not to betrusted. So he wanted to find a more solid foundation for knowledge. He beganwith what has come to be called methodological doubt. And when we saymethodological doubt, well ... Descartes believed that everything should bequestioned, that is, approach it with doubt and that if you could find onething that cannot be false, that one thing would serve as a foundation for allother knowledge claims.

　　So unlike John Locke, Descartes doubts thatknowledge comes to him from his senses. He points out that at some time oranother, everyone has been deceived by their senses. We have all hadexperiences where our senses have been wrong—illusions, perhaps, mirages. Whendriving in a car on a hot summer day, you may see what looks like shimmeringwater on the road, which, as science tells us, is really just a mirage, anillusion caused by the heating of the air. Our senses are wrong, they’vedeceived us. And Descartes thinks that since our senses can deceive us, weought not to take for granted that what they tell us is really true. That’s thefirst step in his methodological doubt.

　　From there he wonders, well, ok, I candoubt my senses, but can I doubt that I am sitting in this room? Can it seemthat we are not really here? That we are somewhere else? He conceives that mostof us would know that we are sitting in the room. But then he says, well,couldn’t I just be dreaming? He’s had dreams that were so real that he thoughthe was awake when in fact he was actually asleep. And this is another good point.It’s really hard to be sure that you are not actually dreaming. Yet anotherproof for Descartes that we can’t always trust what our senses are apparentlytelling us. We could be dreaming. And there’s really no good way to prove thatwe are not.

　　Knowledge points

　　1.笛卡爾懷疑他感知到的信息。他認為在某個時刻每個人都會被他的感官欺騙。這是他哲學思想里的第一步。

　　2.有時候我們可能是在做夢或者出現幻覺,就像我們會看到海市蜃樓一樣,這都說明人們的感官不一定是真實的。