There are four main fields in anthropology:biological, cultural, linguistic and archeology. Each of these focus areas has been studied through varied research techniques and specialized interest. The introduction of psychology was first considered in the context of the human soul. And anthropology with reference to the human body and soul. Before the 16th and 17th centuries, reasoning and judgment were not solidified in any order. Enlightenment of knowledge triggered creativity and created the necessity of a method to conduct and understand research. Logic became a universal tool for philosophers and scholars as a research method for these growing disciplines.
The following sections explain the development of premise-based conclusions and the importance of logic-based reasoning. These thought processes originated from the foundation of theology and were the beginning of philosophical assessments. People have always asked the questions why and how and what; why are we here, how do humans exist, what made this existence possible? And perhaps the most important question of all is what happens next? The first step in answering these questions must first be to create a process in which these topics and their rationale are explained through logical reasoning.
The introduction to logic
The basis of all reasoning in ancient and modern thought was centered on the existence of God. Nature and existence can only be understood by scripture, and therefore any early conception of anthropological topics had a strong basis in scripture. The essence of this era was to create a stronger foundation for the existence of God, beyond faith and scripture. To better understand the natural and existential world, philosophers began to focus on human existence and began to conceptualize the universe through internal knowledge.
The natural theologian
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- Natural theology was the beginning of human anatomy and the serious study of the human body, internally and externally.
The term "natural theologian" refers to someone who aims to use common cognitive processes (reason, self-perception, imagination, judgment) to establish truth about the existence and nature of God and thus the truth about human existence. all cultures have engaged in natural theological processes.The importance of the natural theologian is the focus on human ability to come up with good arguments about non-worldly entities or facts related to our natural order.Natural Theology opened a gateway for thinkers trying to understand it natural order through constructive reasoning and basic reasoning.
The Apology
The theologian Raymond Sebond from the 1436s introduced the term "natural theology", then a revolutionary and progressive concept, in his Theologia naturalis published in XNUMX. Natural theology, as introduced in Theologia naturalis, is an expression of ideas about humanity's understanding of the divine. Sebond recognized two sources of knowledge and truth:the book of nature and the Bible. The book of nature is universal and direct, experienced through self-discovery and self-awareness. The Bible serves to teach man to better understand nature and to reveal truths to us that may not be understood through natural experience.
"Apology for Raymond Sebond" written by Michel de Montaigne is a response to Sebond. Montaigne outlined the various errors in Sebold's theories, and provided new reasoning and methods for natural theological insight. Where Sebond concluded that our knowledge that comes from the self is transcribed through the five senses, Montaigne argued that there are significantly more ways to understand natural order than through five senses. Man cannot possibly possess all possible natural senses, therefore we cannot know what we are missing in the environment and thus cannot completely use senses as universal knowledge. Furthermore, what we learn through our senses is limited. Animals, because of their natural instincts and natural order, have more developed senses than humans. In addition, they vary the senses of individuals due to different perceptions or angles:there is no universal sight, hearing, touch, taste or smell. And the senses can be wrong.
Philosophy, the new foundation
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- Rene Descartes, 1596-1650 is a drawing by Granger. The picture shows Descartes explaining his methods.
Meditations on First Philosophy
Rene Descartes' influence on 16th century philosophy is best illustrated through his "Meditations on First Philosophy". He is known as one of the founders of modern philosophy and engaged in both God and the human mind. His call to life came to him during a meditation while living in Germany in 1619. He sat in his room thinking about the disorder and uncertainty of his current knowledge and was dissatisfied with the lack of basis for separating the truth. Descartes began a methodology that combined all science and all knowledge on a solid basis, and worked for twenty years to complete various essays and treatises, including "Meditations on the First Philosophy". In these meditations, Descartes discusses a method for a unified and certain human knowledge, and explains the premises and controversial conclusions. He included objections and explanations of objections from readers who read the manuscript before publication and the responses to these objections. Descartes expected that his essays would replace Aristotle's teachings and create a new method of logical reasoning.
Rene Descartes sends greetings
Descartes began his mediation with, The Most Wise and Prominent Men, the Dean and Physicians of the Faculty of Sacred Theology in Paris. He begins the letter by explaining his goals and what he hopes to achieve by sharing the following six mediations. Divergent from theology, his meditations take a philosophical approach. Descartes states that his developed method is viable for solving all kinds of problems in the sciences; a method that can be used for all areas of reasoning. His goal was to address two major issues - the existence of God and the human soul; and demonstrate that his philosophical reasoning could better explain these concepts and how to interpret humanity and the law of nature.
Existence of God
To understand the relationship between God and the human soul, one must begin with the belief that God exists. This belief is accepted through faith. Descartes writes that "we must believe in the existence of God because it is taught in the Holy Scriptures, and conversely that we must believe in the Holy Scriptures because they have come from God". Descartes believes this rationale, especially for non-believers, is circular. Theologians in the period between the 15th and 16th centuries accepted that one can prove the existence of God by natural reasoning. In addition, one can also deduce from Scripture that there is only clear evidence that God exists. Anyone who rejects this truth is personally to blame. This idealism can be justified in Romans chapter 1, "what is known about God is evident in them, that everything that can be known about God can be shown for reasons that are taken exclusively from our own mind".
The problem Descartes found was the lack of power these arguments have for non-believers. If God exists because Scripture says so, and Scripture shows that God exists, then what argument can there be for people who do not trust the written word? In addition, if God manifests His truth through the human mind, what is there to say for individuals who do not acknowledge that this manifestation is genuine or valid? His final agenda, thoroughly explained in the introduction, was to convince non-religious people that God exists and that the human mind is different from the body. In the next six meditations, he would justify this theory by trying to demonstrate clear and non-circular reasoning for both problems.
The meditations
Meditation one:Regarding the things that can be called doubt
To begin with, Descartes explains that in order to find the truth, he must start from scratch and begin with an original foundation. This foundation would create a strong foundation for everything "solid and lasting in the sciences". He begins by dismantling all his previous knowledge base, and begins by the senses. Descartes immediately rejects the senses as reliable truths because he has been deceived by the senses and through the senses.
The one standing truth that is locked in his mind, a certainty, is that it is a God who has created all things. His reasoning is this; he perceives his existence and the existence of a creator. This existence, fixed in his mind, cannot be misleading. If it were misleading, it would indicate that God is not good and has created a false existence in an attempt to deceive him. "I will regard the sky, the air, the earth, the colors, the shapes, the sounds, all external things as nothing but the dreams of my dreams." If it were a deceptive God, nothing would ever have a basis for truth. And because he has found it in himself to find a fundamental truth, Descartes rejects this view and therefore rejects a deceptive God.
Meditation two:concerning the nature of the human mind
In a continuation of mediation, Descartes continues to remove everything he previously believed to be true. He therefore assumes that everything he sees is false, that he has no true senses and everything, including body and place, are illusions. If that were the case, it follows that the only certainty is that there is no security. His argument goes that even though this was possible, that everything around him was a false pretext, he is still a thinking being. He concludes that "I am, I exist". To understand the notion I am, I exist, Descartes breaks down what it means when he refers to "I". He first begins with the understanding of his body. The body is bound by form, which contains the senses, and excludes any other body from its place. He then assumes that if there was still a possibility of a deceptive God, then a body and its form could be an illusion. Thus, a body does not justify existence.
From the body, Descartes addresses the soul. The soul, supposedly connected to the body, could not exist. However, Descartes asks the question "what about thinking". He sits in the chair and makes this discovery, and thus it is clear that the thought exists. And if this thought exists, it can not be separated from him, and therefore he must exist. He concludes with this argument that so far he is nothing but thinking.
Meditation three:Concerning God, that he exists
The longest of the meditations. To begin with, he defines the principle of causation. The causal principle states that there must be reality in the effective and total cause as there is in the effect of the same cause. God's proof is written in four premises, and a conclusion that he exists.
Premise 1. I have the idea of an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient good God.
- I am a finite being
- Cause principle
- Only God can create the idea I have of God
Conclusion:God exists.
The next question is what it takes for the universe to begin. To emit an all-expanding, all-encompassing universe, the creator must be good and must contain all knowledge. The Creator must also be infinite, for there is nothing missing about an almighty God. Descartes suggests that although he is a limited being, he has the idea of an infinite being. Although he cannot fully understand the infinite since he is finite, the idea of the infinite is clear. The idea of God is clearest without a complete understanding of infinity. Thus, thinking of God as a finite being is proof that he exists. The existence of God is derived directly from the fact that necessary existence is contained in the clear and distinct idea of an extremely perfect being, which Descartes has.
Meditation four:concerning the true and the false
In meditation four, Descartes repeats the idea he has of the human mind, that it is a thinking thing. He explains that even though he thinks, he has the ability to doubt and compare. He continues his argument that he is an incomplete and dependent thing, and in comparison he has a clear idea of an independent and complete being, God. In conclusion, Descartes says that because he has the idea of God in him, it must be because God also exists.
His first argument for this case is that it is impossible for God to deceive him. Although God is all powerful and capable of such deception, it will involve weakness and is therefore incompatible with God's nature. Then there is in him a certain judgment from God, which he has undoubtedly received from God. It follows that he can not be able to make a mistake in understanding the existence of God, because God gave him this idea, and therefore it is true and perfect. To compare the nature of God with man, Descartes understands that his human nature is weak and limited, and the nature of God is enormous, incomprehensible and infinite. Therefore, he certainly cannot comprehend all of God's ideas because he is too divine. However, he can determine his existence. Every clear and distinct conception of God must have come from something, because the idea of the infinite could not come from nothing, it is too divine.
Meditation five:regarding the essence of material things
Descartes continues his next meditation with the idea that every clear and distinct perception he has can not come from anything. He believed that there are certain ideas he has, even if they do not exist anywhere outside himself, can not be created by nothing. Descartes uses an example of the triangle. He has an idea for a triangle; the properties have three angles. He knows that these properties are true, and with the idea of a triangle and its properties, triangles must exist. He uses this argument again, to establish the existence of God. The existence of God, like the properties of a triangle, cannot be separated. A triangle does not exist without its properties, and the idea of God cannot exist without God.
Meditation six:concerning the existence of material things and the real distinction between mind and body
When we go back to the senses, Descartes suggests that there should be some consideration for the senses. He has the feeling that he has a head, hands, feet and other parts that consist of his body. And that his body is associated with sensation, pleasure or pain. He has noticed that pleasure and paint are experienced through his body and cannot exist without him. The body is an extension of itself and is not a thinking thing. Although the body cannot think like the mind, it is a union between mind and body. Descartes uses the example of sensation. The feeling of pain and hunger and thirst is present in the body and is perceived through the intellect. When the body is dehydrated, it is given up through the feeling of thirst, and understood in the mind; and thus causes a union between body and mind.
Cultural significance in anthropology
Descartes and his mediation provided a new assessment of knowledge and how it must be transcribed through a reasoning method, premises and conclusions. His whole life's work was to not only answer the reasons why, but also to answer how. He questioned what he knew was real and what he could probably know, which in the end was that he existed because he could think. This age of modern philosophy has been considered the birthplace of anthropology. These developmental processes are how we can research biology, language, uncover archeology, and understand cultural relevance. Descartes removed all old notions of truth and tried to conceptualize the idea and how he could discover the truth. Truth ends and begins with reality and reason. His mediative discovery established a basis for knowledge through conceptualized research-based methods.
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- This drawing depicts the mind, body problem and sensory understanding.
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- This drawing shows the influence of Descartes' knowledge of mathematics and geometry on his perception of how the body works.