Exercise 6

Exercise #6

1.     Illusion

a.       Descartes believes everything we know we have learned through our senses. 

He finds this to be an unfortunate point because our senses can fell us, therefore they are not a reliable source.  This leads him to believe everything we must know is an illusion. 

“Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.”

b.      Miller describes the systems we have in place to eliminate threat.  He does this cynically as we cannot be “reassured” of this at all.  He describes this while talking about Columbine and the unexpected turn of events. 

 “It's reassuring to think that either the work of the legal system or the educational system can reduce or eliminate altogether the threat of the unpredictable and the unforeseen. This is why we have childproof medicine bottles, penalties for not buckling up, informational literature on family planning for students in junior high school: these are all examples of reasonable responses to known problems. But the schoolyard massacre seems a problem of a different order. What legal or educational response could be equal to the challenge of controlling the behavior of so many students from such varied backgrounds? Just how much surveillance would be required to bring the marginalized fraction of the student population back into the fold? How invasive would a curricular intervention have to be to succeed in instilling a set of preferable values in those who currently feel so deeply alienated while at school?”

c.       I myself agree with both authors about illusion.  Life itself illusion after illusion.  We choose which we’ll follow and which we won’t believe. 

2.     God

a.     Even after everything he’s learned Descartes stands firm in his faith in God.  He believes that God is the one thing that cannot be disproved even after he himself manages to do just that. 

“And yet firmly rooted in my mind is the long standing opinion that there is an omnipotent God who made me the kind of creature that I am.” 

b.      Miller struggles with his faith.  He is unsure where to place faith living in the world we do today. 

“The sense-less loss of life always trumps the efforts of the meaning makers.  Why bother with reading and writing when the world is so obviously going to hell?”

c.       I myself agree with Miller.  I don’t understand how anyone holds on to faith in this day and age.  I envy Descartes and his ability to trust in something beyond a shadow of a doubt. 

3.     Meditation

a.       I couldn’t find a quote about mediation in The Meditations but it obviously is an important theme throughout.  This is not something Descartes took lightly, so much so he waited until he was mature enough to take on such a task.  He understood the gravity of what he was doing and self meditation seemed the only way possible to find the answers he was seeking. 

b.      Miller believes meditation can be used to serve any purpose.  His hope is that it will be used to serve a better, positive, purpose and help create better people. 

“Reading, writing, talking, meditating, speculating, arguing: these are the only resources available to those of us who teach the humanities and they are, obviously. resources that can be bent to serve any purpose.”

c.       I agree with Miller.  When I think about meditation the first thought I have is Buddhist monks.  This is a false stereotype for meditation.  Anyone can meditate and everyone should.  It is important at times to be alone with your own thoughts and to learn things for yourself.