René Descartes - Meditation #1 - The Method of Doubt

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This is a lecture about the first of Descartes' six Meditations on First Philosophy. It is part an introduction to philosophy course. In this meditation, Descartes explains his plan for all six meditations, then explains how his method of doubt will allow him to temporarily cease to believe all the things that he cannot know for certain, and finally executes the first part of that plan. He goes through the basic principles which underly his beliefs, doubts those basic principles, and then wipes clean all of his previous beliefs. Most notably, Descartes discusses dream skepticism, or the possibility that he is dreaming, and malicious demon skepticism, or the possibility that he is being deceived by an evil genius or malicious demon.

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I've been to this text a lot, but I must say that I've also learned a whole lot more from this video series. You are such an excelent teacher! Those deep and continuous explanations really help to break the dense philosophical ideas that pertain to Descartes. Thank you!

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[@profjeffreykaplan]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful.

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[@profjeffreykaplan]

Glad that I could help! The videos are all organized in the playlist section of my KZbin page, if that's helpful as well.

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You are so animated, thank you for this wonderful breakdown of his first Meditation!

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I started my new channel to pursue angles I hadn't before, came across this vid of yours because Descartes' philosophy was always such a fun ponder for me. What a great video, please continue pressing forward with your critical mind, the world needs it. Funny thing is I didn't even search Descartes, I was looking for more connections on two unrelated people. I love it!

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A marvelous summation. Well done, sir, and thank you.

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[@emrald2000]

@@vytasffbismarck7001 thats what the omnipotent demon wants you to think

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[@fizaaahere]

seriously Philosophy hasn't been this fun for me . I was literally laughing my ass out!. I have a humble suggestions for the audience that just go through the mediations before watching this for atleast once and listen Jeffrey Kalpan's great lecture you will obviously enjoying it. Hats of you Master! Thank you.

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Thank you Professor, very interesting explanation René Descartes - Meditation with The Method of Doubt 👍

[@vmasci1212]

Amazing pedagogical skills! Thanks for these explanations.

[@rogerdudra178]

Greetings from the BIG SKY. When I 1st attended Colorado College, I had to read Rene' Descarte's stuff. Hard reading for a Montana kid.

[@martinbennett2228]

I also teach the méditations métaphysiques and would like to add a couple of points. Overall the work is one of the most extraordinary in literature because it operates on multiple levels. It is very frequently presented as a philosophical text; indeed it does present Descartes- philosophy, but it is also self evidently a work of fiction; he has invented the philosophical novel. To believe otherwise would be to believe that over a period of six days Descartes reconstructs the whole of philosophy (and presumably rests on the seventh day!). More specifically on the malevolent demon, I think this is best read as an allegory for the possibility that the mind might be messed up, this could be by drugs, hypnotism possibly or more importantly by lesions to the brain that systemically produce mistakes. These are now well documented in clinical neuroscience. By the way, thumbs up for your presentation.

[@martinbennett2228]

@Chet Senior About any possible disorder to the mind.

[@MugenTJ]

The same Descartes believed in the separation of mind and body, and that god exists, leading me to think Descartes was being a magician, pretending to cast doubt on everything, then to sell us the existence of the soul, mathematics , and god. When none of them are real things. How ironic, if he was sincere. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good thinker, nevertheless deeply influenced by the doctrines of his time.

[@martinbennett2228]

@@MugenTJ Persuaded by the primacy of thought over sensory experience, Descartes was a rationalist and a dualist, the rational existence of mathematics is inevitable; his account of the soul "je m´imaginais qu'elle était quelque chose d'extrêmement rare et subtil, comme un vent, une flamme ou un air très délié (rarefied)" portrays it as extremey insubstantial: it is as though he does not want to completely deny any material quality for it; for God he resorts (mostly) to a strange, rationalist, immaterial final cause argument. Did Descartes really believe his God arguments? We know he knew that denying God's existence would have been lethal, so it is hard to be sure at that level. He did, however, need to invoke God in order to escape the solipsism of his existence as 'a thinking thing'. Where 'magic' is involved is in his dualism, how the immaterial world of ideas somehow manages to have material effects.

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They flipped the video. :)

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[@profjeffreykaplan]

Thanks for the kind words. And glad I could help!

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Glad you liked it!

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Please tell me how you write everything backwards. I understand Descartes better than I understand how you are writing backwards.

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Sir i am frm India and firstly i watched the last meditation and it look like a awesome experience of descarts philosophy Now i see all the lectures

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[@lilDemo808]

I have an exam about anthropology and Descartes first and second meditation tomorrow, this helped a lot. Thanks mate. PS: This made me laugh way harder then it should have 32:44

[@profjeffreykaplan]

Glad I could help!

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I love you, respectively.

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I've seen the number three. It was a giant number three shouting at kids in a local park. Anyways, this video lecture was fun and super interesting. Off to the next video. Cheers. :):)

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Estoy asistiendo por el subtitulo en español gracias por por el contenido!!

[@omenznc]

Loved the Video Professor Kaplan it helped a lot! - Michael Wiktorek

[@profjeffreykaplan]

Glad it helped! check out the playlists section of my youtube channel for the organized list of the Descartes videos, and my other videos.

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This was funny and informative!

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Thanks!

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[@brucestunkard2893]

I too appreciate the clarity of the lecturer. After listening to the first lecture on Descartes First Meditation I think Ive got a grasp of Descartes project and his method of doubt. That said Im baffled by the lecturers conclusion that all Descartes beliefs have been doubted. Didn’t Descartes say that an all powerful demon might be able to deceive him but not God who is good. If I heard right then Rene has not doubted his belief in God. Or did I miss something which is quite possible. Id appreciate anyone correcting me if this is not so because if I got this right then Im not certain whether to believe the lecturer in his following lectures.

[@sarahwajdi7428]

Thank u dr❤🇯🇴

[@shivadasa]

Enlightenment is the waking world equivalent of a lucid dream.

[@travisryan6545]

Many of the great movie in the last 100 years makes use of Decartes' "Method of Doubt" - Wizard of Oz, The Matrix, Inception, Fight Club etc

[@antoinemozart243]

Don't forget Ridley Scott 's Blade Runner and Deckart ( Descartes).

[@perpetual989]

Pedagogical wizard we salute you 🫡

[@maksman.maurice]

Well explained

[@rhpmike]

I've never heard meditation 1 explained in more than a couple sentences, so this was nice. A question, though: why does it matter the respective rationales for the doubt? For example, it seems that everything could just be subsumed under "demon" and Descartes would lose nothing. Or, rather than being more specific, couldn't everything just be broadened: "Perception isn't always reality." What would be lost by just simplifying the reasons for doubt?

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love u bro

[@em_the_bee]

2:09 the funny thing is, meter is defined to be the distance light passes in 1/299 million something-something seconds, so technically that's guaranteed to be true; by definition.

[@theobolt250]

Funny thing, you can consider this work by Descartes as the kick off for a proces that eventually lead to the certainty that God does not exist. Good work, Rene. 😁😁

[@acediaow2852]

I think in this case senses would “mislead” rather than “deceive.”

[@achrafabouras2118]

can you do the confessions of book 10 by saint augustine, and St. Auscln (something that which nothing is greater can be thought of)

[@Knutman]

please do one on spinoza`s ethics

[@TheOmalka]

Amazing explanation ...

[@rosepurdy6301]

Big fan of Descartes, thanks for the vid. Teach- how did you learn to write backwards?