Having never done any sort of Philosophy in my school career I found the first introduction very daunting and worrying. I was met with a lot of new ideas, ones that were quite difficult to get my head around. However, after this afternoons lecture I found things were becoming slightly clearer in my mind, or at least I hope! Taking all this into account, my first blog entry about all these ideas and philosophies may be pretty basic, but I'm hoping as the weeks go on I will be able to expand more on my thoughts and interpretations of the lectures and texts.

Today the lecture started with information on The Renaissance as well as discussing people such as Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras. The Renaissance began during the 14th century and is believed to have started in Florence. During this time not many new Philosophical studies were made, but instead humanists focused on acquiring knowledge of previous influential philosophers. Whilst in the lecture, the philosopher who grabbed my attention most was Descartes and not just because he loved lie ins! Descartes studied and was highly interested in maths and mechanical Science. He studied modern mathematics at the Jersuit college of La Fleche. He later when on to study Law at the University of Poitiers. However, finding his education to be of no use and considered a waste of time he decided to search for new ideas, new philosophies in other countries. After studying different cultures and customs he came to the conclusion that philosophy was effected by these variables and considered this also to be a waste of his time.
Descartes went on to question his own existence and whether or not he could trust his senses and ideas that before had been assumed as fact. He pondered “Can I doubt that I am sitting here by the fire in a dressing gown? Yes, for sometimes I have dreamt that I was here when in fact I was naked in bed.” Everything he believed to be true was scrutinised and if a shred of doubt was apparent, then it was dismissed. Descartes even doubted his own body stating “I may have no body, this might be an illusion.” Through the process of his revolutionary Cartesian Doubt, Descartes came to the conclusion that just by simply thinking he was proving his own existence and famously coined the phrase “I think therefore I am.” This led him to reason that there is a separation between the mind and body, this particularly interested me as this is one of the main ideals of the Buddhist religion.

Descartes paved the way for some modern day ideas, Robert Nozick recently pondered whether or not people would choose to be subjected to a state where your were dreaming and imagining your ideal surroundings, your ideal way of life would become your reality, all while being in this dream like state. He concluded that no one would enter this subjected state, as everyone would rather deal with life and its problems rather than live a fake life.


Although I have no previous knowledge of Philosophy I'd like to think I had a broader mind than round headed Karl Pilkington....





Although this was just my basic understanding of one of the ideas we explored in class I hope that as time and lectures proceed that I will be more informed and more able to expand my own ideas and thoughts.