Part one of term paper
How do we know what we know? Ideas reside in the minds of intelligent beings, but a clear perception of where these ideas come from is often the point of debate. It is with this in mind that René Descartes set forth on the daunting task to determine where clear and distinct ideas come from. A particular passage written in Meditations on ...

Part two of term paper
... task of Descartes to cast doubt upon all which he knows, in order to build a solid foundation of knowledge out of irrefutable truths. Borrowing an idea from Archimedes, that with one firm and immovable point, the earth could be moved, Descartes sought one immovable truth. Descartes’ immovable truth, a truth on which he would lay down his foundation of knowledge, and define all that which he knows, was the simple line ‘Cogito ergo sume”; I think, therefor I am. This allowed for h ...