Saron Tesfaye

PHIL 1301-81011

Robert Cobb Bennett

November 24, 2015

In this interesting class, I have been introduced to a French philosopher Rene Descartes.

What fascinate me about this philosopher is his philosophy on Doubt. Descartes said “I will

doubt everything.” I have read in books, and heard wise people say “Doubting is the first mistake

a man made before he fell”. I believe in this saying because once you start doubting, there is no

stop to it. So Descartes ability to doubt everything, and still maintain his sanity is quite

interesting. According to Robert Stoothoff in "Descartes' Dilemma." “For all he knows, God or

some demon is deceiving him into believing that two and three added together make five; hence

even this belief may be false, and so it should – according to Descartes’ method – be regarded as

dubious.” It seem Descartes doubt the fact that he is doubting which made me wonder why he

bother to doubt in the first place. Descartes isn’t even sure of the source of his thoughts; he asked

“is there not a God, or whatever I may call him, who puts into me the thoughts I am now

having?” (Stoothoff, 1989). Everybody have their own doubts including me, but we also need at

least one thing we are certain about to use as a gravity otherwise our mind will be like a needle

out in space. Even Descartes seem to agree with me because he too have an idea he is certain

about, and he puts it like this “I think; therefore I am” he doesn’t doubt the fact he exist.

Though we learned about great philosophers in this class, I can’t seem to get Socrates out

of my head. Many might argue it is because he is the first philosopher I took lecture on, yet I

doubt it. Socrates was a genius, yet he was lazy and never wrote any of his philosophy. He is

everything I want to be more so I wish he would wake up from the dead, and answer me this
questions on his philosophy “All that I know is that I know nothing” which would get me out of

my lost state that I am in right now. My first question is how do you look for what you don’t

know or know that you know it? If I get to ask Socrates this question, I believe he would give me

the same answer he gave Meno; “it is not possible for a man to seek either what he knows or

what he does not know? For he would not seek what he knows—for he knows it, and for such a

person there is no need of seeking—nor what he does not know—for he does not know what he

will seek” ( McCabe, 235). My second question would be how can you know nothing when you

KNOW you know nothing? I mean the fact that he knows that he doesn’t, is knowledge enough

to make him the wisest man at the time. I believe he would answer me his awareness to the fact

he luck knowledge would put him in a place he won’t be able to get enough of it. Since he knows

that he doesn’t, he will be open-minded to new information.

I think Socrates is a great philosopher. He is believed to be the father of philosophy, sill

he did nothing more than speak his ideas to people. If he was in our generation he would have

been called lazy, or crazy or both. He died for his believe which was very brave of him. His

bravery at the end of his life makes me wonder why he leaved his life so irresponsible;

nonetheless, he was the wisest man.

 Works Cited

Stoothoff, Robert. "Descartes' Dilemma." Philosophical Quarterly 39.156 (1989): 294-

307. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

King, Christopher S. "Wisdom, Moderation, and Elenchus in Plato's Apology." Metaphilosophy

39.3 (2008): 345-362. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

McCabe, Mary Margaret. "XII—Escaping One's Own Notice Knowing: Meno's Paradox Again."

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (Paperback) 109.1pt3 (2009): 233-256. Academic

Search Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2015