Descartes & Methodological Skepticism

   Methodological skepticism is a way of using the process of doubting in order to arrive at certainty. After learning about this i'd have to say that methodological skepticism makes sense and is a good way to approach situations. Come to think of it i often do this unknowingly, most of the times when i am told something i don't automatically believe its the truth just because someone told me. I like to find out and explore for myself whether i believe it or not. But for the most part we as a society tend to believe things until it becomes impossible to believe rather than doubting everything, i say this because its just easier that way and less controversial rather than doubting everything,but this doesn't necessarily mean that methodological skepticism isn't a good strategy, its a strategy that isn't the easy way out that's all. We believe things until we have reason to doubt. Overall in my opinion methodological skepticism is a good strategy it allows us to construct our own beliefs. for example in our legal system 'we' are suppose to be "innocent until proven guilty" but most get treated "guilty until proven innocent" in this example methodological skepticism would change the outlook in legal situations. 
      Descartes was a rationalist but developed methodological skepticism as a way to have more genuine knowledge and certainty rather than having doubts and not solid beliefs.

Week 1 - Plato's Cave.

In the Allegory of the cave, Socrates conveys the idea that the prisoners in the cave are "like ourselves" meaning without philosophical education we are like the prisoners in the cave. The prisoners know just what they see in front of them but it is so much more than what they are shown. 

I agree with socrates entirely. Many people would rather live with illusion which makes life easier and comfortable for them, in other words ignorance is bliss, some find it easier to not know or become enlightened about what actually is but just choose to see what little they are shown. philosophy allows us to think critically about questions we want the answers and explore the world for what it actually is. 

Philosophy is suppose to liberating in the way that it challenges our assumptions and forces us to rethink the image created for us about the world. It also allows us to become more open minded on things that make us uncomfortable and to think about questions we always wondered the answers to. Philosophy explores new ways to think and challenge ourselves allowing us to view life differently and develop new perspectives. 

I believe that Socrates is right to be so pessimistic about life without philosophy because without it we would not ask questions about the world and society which we live in, we then would become prisoners in a cave only seeing what is shown to us. philosophy allows us to control our own lives with the power of knowledge.

Week 0: What i want to learn about Philosophy

Not really knowing to much about Philosophy one thing that really caught my attention while reading the syllabus for this course was that we will be learning not to just read and understand but we will be learning to think like philosophers and the motives behind their way thinking. In my opinion this will make things more interesting and easier to learn because we are not only addressing HOW things were done we are addressing the reason WHY. I was always hesitant to take a Philosophy because i thought it would be like a history class but knowing a little information i'm quite excited to learn something new and expand my ways of thinking. 

' DUMMY POST '

Just making sure everything works.