InsaneJournal

Current mood:	aggravated
Entry tags:	philosophy, rant

Have an early-morning rant.
I hatehatehate it when people (usually students or other people young enough to think they know everything HEY IRONY RITE) badmouth Descartes.

Descartes' works are used as target-practice for students first venturing into Philosophy because until the teachers impart certain extra bits of information, you can't see how they'd ever work. This leads to many, many people calling Descartes stupid.

HELLO, THIS IS THE GUY WHO INVENTED THE GRAPH. A RESPECTED SCIENTIST AND MATHEMATICIAN BEFORE HE EVER TOUCHED PHILOSOPHY. NOT STUPID.

And you know why Descartes' works don't seem like they would ever work?

Because Descartes used a different definition of cause to us. This definition of cause was known as the causal adequacy principle. (By the way, wikipedia states that the causal adequacy theory was proposed by Descartes. This is not accurate. I don't know who it was proposed by, but I do know that Descartes used the theory of cause generally accepted at the time. Trying to define causality is haaaaaaard.)

It's too early in the morning for me to go dig out my notes and explain why this new theory of cause makes Descartes' arguments a lot more sound. This has annoyed me so much that I may end up doing so this evening anyway.

This rant brought to you (once again) by morons in a roleplay comm. I take things that annoy me way to seriously. ^^;