A01=Janet Broughton
Absurdity
Academic skepticism
Atheism
Author_Janet Broughton
Awareness
Belief
Bernard Williams
Cartesian circle
Cartesian doubt
Category=QDH
Causality
Certainty
Circular reasoning
Cogito ergo sum
Cognitive development
Common sense
Concept
Consciousness
Cosmological argument
Dream argument
Dualism (philosophy of mind)
Empirical evidence
Epistemology
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Ex nihilo
Existence
Existence of God
Explanation
Falsity
First principle
God
Hypothesis
Idealism
Inference
Infinite regress
Inquiry
Intellect
Mathematics
Meditations
Meditations on First Philosophy
Metaphor
Moral certainty
Objectivity (philosophy)
Philosopher
Philosophical skepticism
Philosophy
Premise
Princeton University Press
Principle
Principle of sufficient reason
Pyrrhonism
Quantity
Radical skepticism
Rationalism
Rationality
Reality
Reason
Reasonable person
Rene Descartes
Requirement
Scholasticism
Sextus Empiricus
Skepticism
Stoicism
Suggestion
Suspension of judgment
Theodicy
Theory
Thomas Hobbes
Thought
Transcendental arguments
Understanding
Writing
Product details
- ISBN 9780691117324
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 26 Oct 2003
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Descartes thought that we could achieve absolute certainty by starting with radical doubt. He adopts this strategy in the Meditations on First Philosophy, where he raises sweeping doubts with the famous dream argument and the hypothesis of an evil demon. But why did Descartes think we should take these exaggerated doubts seriously? And if we do take them seriously, how did he think any of our beliefs could ever escape them? Janet Broughton undertakes a close study of Descartes's first three meditations to answer these questions and to present a fresh way of understanding precisely what Descartes was up to. Broughton first contrasts Descartes's doubts with those of the ancient skeptics, arguing that Cartesian doubt has a novel structure and a distinctive relation to the commonsense outlook of everyday life. She then argues that Descartes pursues absolute certainty by uncovering the conditions that make his radical doubt possible. She gives a unified account of how Descartes uses this strategy, first to find certainty about his own existence and then to argue that God exists.
Drawing on this analysis, Broughton provides a new way to understand Descartes's insistence that he hasn't argued in a circle, and she measures his ambitions against those of contemporary philosophers who use transcendental arguments in their efforts to defeat skepticism. The book is a powerful contribution both to the history of philosophy and to current debates in epistemology.
Janet Broughton is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.
