Monday, February 4, 2008
Discourse Part 5
Discourse 5 begins by explaining how and why Descartes' treatise, "The World" was not published. Reasons being that Galileo was being tried at the time by the church for his support of heliocentricity. Therefore Descartes did not want to get in trouble so he talks about the ideas of his book, but he changes the setting to a world, somewhere in space. He then goes on to talk about God and how he creates everything on that world, and establishes his laws. From that point on he has no control over what happens, and the laws he established will determine how the chaos he created sorts itself out and becomes what it is today. He then goes on to explain, how we are different from animals because we have the ability to speak to each other and have other levels of higher thinking. As Mark said he talks about blood a lot, and finishes with explaining how when we die we go to the same place as all other animals, however it is our soul that makes us different, which states that our body and soul are completely seperate.
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In your original post, you say that, "He then goes on to explain, how we are different from animals because we have the ability to speak to each other and have other levels of higher thinking."..What about that though does he say is the reason why we are so much more complex and different? What structures and other factors play a role in why humans can talk to eachother, and other "beasts" can not? How is this incorporated with the fact that we have higher levels of thinking?...
"As Mark said he talks about blood a lot, and finishes with explaining how when we die we go to the same place as all other animals, however it is our soul that makes us different, which states that our body and soul are completely seperate."
I like how he really opens up about what he believes in. Once he clears the fact that he is talking "hypothetically", but in actuality talking about the current world.
I find it very interesting that Descartes plays off our world as a place in space. I just dont really understand if he actually believes in God or doubts him. I find it interesting that he starts off this chapter on how God created everything and everything else sorts itself out..and Descartes ends with how body and soul are completely different. I think he makes a good transformation from one thing to the next in this part of his Discourse, because he covers alot, especially about the blood.
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