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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Why is Descartes not a Real Skeptic?
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1 Independent Researcher of Philosophy 34000, İstanbul , Turkey
Received: 23 February 2019 | Published online: 26 June 2019
© 2019 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract
Descartes is described as the strongest name of methodological skepticism, and is often mentioned as a skeptical philosopher due to his methodology. His aim is to shed light on the indubitable truth by using methodological skepticism. This aim of Descartes shows that despite his methodological skepticism he always had a belief that the truth existed. Although Descartes uses the doubt methodologically, this situation reveals the injustice of being referred to as a skeptic. The problem here is whether the use of doubt as a method makes the philosopher skeptic. In this study, the methodological skepticism of Descartes will be investigated, and it will be claimed that he is not a real skeptic.
Keywords
Descartes
methodological skepticism
doubt
three skeptical arguments
truth.
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