Understanding Thought: Mental Processes and Problem Solving
The Nature of Thought and Intelligence
This section explores the contents of mental processes and how our minds solve problems and make decisions.
The Contents of Thought
Our thinking relies on mental representations. Perception, mental projection, and memory allow us to store information for later use.
Before proceeding, we must distinguish between types of mental representations. Cognitivist psychologists and philosophers identify two basic types: analog and symbolic representations. Analog representations
Read MoreDescartes: Father of Modern Philosophy and Rationalism
Life of René Descartes
Life: Father of modern philosophy, initiator of rationalism. Born in 1596 into a family of minor nobility, the son of Joachim Descartes, counselor of the parliament of Rennes. Descartes was educated by his grandmother until 1606, when he entered the Jesuit school, despite a weak state of health. He studied grammar, Latin, Greek, logic, physics, metaphysics, and mathematics, but criticized scholastic matters and methods. He moved to Paris and began case studies for his bachelor’
Read MoreDescartes’ Philosophy: Self, God, and the Mind-Body Dualism
Descartes focused on a unitary conception of reason, aiming for complete knowledge (philosophy) to be used correctly and to achieve true and useful knowledge. Mathematics served as the model for knowledge (objective, necessary, universal, and obvious). He specified two acts of knowing: intuition (where doubt is impossible) and deduction (where reason discovers connections between simple ideas grasped by intuition).
The Cartesian Method
The Cartesian method, based on mathematics, represents the structure
Read MoreSt. Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy, Faith, and Reason
Item 7: Scholastic Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas
1. Socio-Historical Context
He lived in the thirteenth century, when the Papacy became the main Western power, above the empire. Yet the imperial comes from God, so he’s rebelling against God.
2. Relationship Between Faith and Reason
Thomas says that original sin weakened humanity, so he needs divine grace (the gift that God gives you access to the faith) for salvation and to perfect human nature. Faith and reason do not vanish, but working together,
Read MoreDescartes’ Cogito: The Foundation of Knowledge
The Cogito: The First Truth
The cogito is the first truth in the order of knowledge, and in two respects: firstly, it is the first truth that we obtain when we employ methodical doubt, and secondly, because from it, we can substantiate all others. It becomes the basic axiom from which all philosophy developed as a knowledge system.
Clarifications on “I Think, Therefore I Exist”
In connection with the famous phrase “I think, therefore I exist,” the following clarifications are essential:
1. The Cogito
Read MoreKant’s Philosophy: Enlightenment, Reason, and Ethics
Frame: The Eighteenth Century Context
Immanuel Kant lived in the eighteenth century, coinciding with U.S. independence, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. These changes were linked to capitalism and the consolidation of political and social advancement of the bourgeoisie, which set a new cultural model: the Enlightenment. Kant described the Enlightenment as the mental attitude in which man decides to leave his minority, using his unaided reason.
In this era, political despotism
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