montaigne and descartes on doubting Essay -- essays research papers

Montaigne and DescartesMontaigne and Descartes both made use of a philosophical manner that focused on the use of doubt to make discoveries more or less themselves and the world around them. However, they doubted different things. Descartes doubted all(prenominal) his previous do itledge from his senses, go Montaigne doubted that there were any(prenominal) absolute certainties in knowledge. Although they both began their philosophical processes by doubting, Montaigne doubting a constant static self, and Descartes doubted that anything existed at all, Descartes was able to lead past that doubt to find one indubitably certainty, I think, therefrom I am. How often do we question what is real or true? Descartes believed that doubting everything that he knew to be truthful knowledge was the alone way to find out what was actually true and real. He moody doubting into a key principle for his methods of philosophy. Descartes would ask what we really knew beyond the shadow of a dou bt. To do this he resolves to search within himself (Descartes 9). scratch though, since he decided to doubt everything, he had to tack together aside all of the knowledge that he supposedly knew, to search out the truth (Descartes 13). He did this blindly, not knowing whether the truth is the knowledge that he already knew and was forcing himself to put aside, or that the truth is some knowledge he did not know that would replace his previous forms of knowledge. Descartes decided that he did not need to manifest that all of his knowledge was false, but lonesome(prenominal) that all of his knowledge was not certain. He did not, however, spend time examining every one of his bits of knowledge. Instead later on setting all of his previous knowledge aside he tried and true to find one thing outside of his knowledge that was certain.Not only did Descartes set aside all of his previous knowledge, but he as well set aside all knowledge he had gained, and that he move to gain from his five senses. He would not believe what his eyes saw, or what his hand felt, because he could not yet determine his senses as giving him knowledge that could be turned into certainties. He did not have any reason to believe that he could rely on his senses. Descartes doubting of his senses also caused him to reject any knowledge that he had gained by means of life experience. intimately of the knowl... ...se whichbelong exclusively to the mindthings are sensed through understanding, silent through senses (Montaigne 414). It is also important to realize that our mind doubts things because it knows its own limits. olibanum since we know nothing to be certain it is important to use change intensity phrases such as perhaps, somewhat, some, they say, I think, and so on (356). Montaigne was constantly stupefied at how much knowledge we claimed to be sure of. Throughout Montaignes and Descartes written work they used doubt as a method to attaining knowledge about the world and about themselves. Descartes believed that preconceived knowledge gained through learning and the senses must be set aside in golf-club to discover certainties. Montaigne believed that there were no certainties because our knowledge was attained through our senses, and thusly everyones knowledge would be different, because everyone senses things differently. Either way both men turned into themselves to find the knowledge they described in their philosophies. They both left us with one important bit of knowledge to carry with us throughout our lives, accept nothing, and question everything.