Defending Descarter's Cogito Ergo Sum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Defending Descarter's Cogito Ergo Sum - Essay Example Hence, we should, I think, recognize that it is possible, to a certain extent, to think of things, which certainly do not have a physical form. The justification for my argument is grounded mainly on Descartes’s Meditations. He decisively focused on the argument, as seen in the beginning of Meditations on First Philosophy, confidently carved the independent realms of religion and reason, and trusted that his effort would discreetly, but determinedly, re-establish reason to its legitimate place (Sarkar 2003). However, there are detractors of Descartes’s ‘cogito ergo sum’ (I think, therefore, I am), such as the mostly overlooked philosopher Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne was the forerunner of Descartes, with perspectives on reason that have a great deal of influence on the theories of his descendants in France (Hatfield 2003). Edwin M. Curley claims that the evidence of God’s existence is intertwined with cogito’s premise in this sense (Sarkar 2 003, 110): â€Å"Descartes would hold that even the proposition ‘I exist’ is fully certain only if the rest of the argument of the Meditations goes through. We must buy all or nothing.† However, defending Descartes’s cogito against critics, like Curley, is not the main objective of this paper. It is the primary objective of this paper to demonstrate that there is a contemporary form of the Cartesian Circle—â€Å"I now seem to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true† (Lemos 2004, 45)—more overwhelming than the previous version. We should address this contemporary Cartesian Circle. This new version of Descartes’s magnum opus will be required as an unvarying cue soon after, when different approaches toward interpreting the cogito are broken up. Although I support the notion that we can exist even without physical form through thinking, I believe that Descartes’s c ogito has several flaws that have to be addressed in order to make the argument stronger. Certainly, the failure of Descartes to challenge his ability to reason is baffling, because his way of distrusting his senses would have offered him an almost perfect paradigm for distrusting his reason. Descartes could have created skepticisms about his ‘thinking’ that are similar to the skepticism about his senses (Dicker 1993). The first Cartesian Circle of the senses elaborates, and validates, the apparent argument that our senses at times mislead us; the next Cartesian Circle rationalizes a firmer argument, specifically, that at certain points in time we are incapable of making certain whether they mislead us or not (Dicker 1993); and ultimately, as stated in Lemos (2004), the last and most compelling Cartesian Circle is created, specifically, that there is no such thing as senses. Likewise, Descartes could have embarked on these ideas: an initial Cartesian Circle about reason , demonstrating how exercising reason at times deceive us; a next Cartesian Circle to demonstrate that at certain points in time we would be incapable of making sure whether we have used our reason rightfully; and ultimately (Moore 1962), a final Cartesian Circl

Juvenile Recidivism in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Juvenile Recidivism in the United States - Essay Example This research tells that the examination of juvenile crime and procedures has hitherto focused on the flows of the justice processes and the psychology of minor criminals. This has shown that juveniles tend to re-offend within four years of their earlier offense and when the arrests were caused by drug issues, the likelihood of being arrested again increased up to 70%. Research has supported this finding of re-arrest among juveniles statistically, however, the literature review above has pointed out that such data is mainly limited to first arrests through January 2005 and does not take into account the arrests for different offenses occurring when the criminal was in custody. Research also shows that re-arrest rates vary in different boroughs and there is also a higher rate of juvenile offending among males as compared to females. Imprisoning young offenders in adult prisons also appears to be compounding the problem of juvenile recidivism. Juveniles are apprehended for serious crim es such as murder, aggravated assault, robbery and rape as well as less serious offenses such as violation of drug laws, lewd acts or copulation. The rationale offered for a commission of such crimes is their association with adult male prisoners. Since they are raped by adult criminals during their initial prison terms, these juveniles seek to wreak vengeance by committing sex crimes after their release from prison. The Sentencing Guidelines Commission of Washington, in an annual report on recidivism, suggests that juveniles experience pleasure while committing crimes, which is why they repeat them. A major part of a juvenile criminal activity in centered within sexual acts such as rape, sodomy, etc, suggesting that the pleasure in the sexual act is the motivating factor. The comforts such as food and shelter offered at prisons also function as an impediment to the deterrent value of the prisons, hence it may be necessary to consider improving the punitive atmosphere and beefing up the punitive aspect of existing prison programs.