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For the avoidance of doubt: Difference between revisions
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Do you feel reinvigorated with clarity and certainty, readers? | Do you feel reinvigorated with clarity and certainty, readers? | ||
Speaking of God, it is a little known fact that Descartes’ epic metaphysical tract {{br|Discourse on the Method}} was a spirited attempt to define the expression ''[[for the avoidance of doubt]]''. Descartes started by asking, “what ''is'' doubt? Can we ever be sure that what we think is doubt, is, actually, doubt? And if there is some doubt about | Speaking of God, it is a little known fact that Descartes’ epic metaphysical tract {{br|Discourse on the Method}} was a spirited attempt to define the expression ''[[for the avoidance of doubt]]''. Descartes started by asking, “what ''is'' doubt? Can we ever be sure that what we ''think'' is doubt, is, actually, ''doubt''? And if there is some doubt about that, how should we feel about it? Doubtful?” | ||
Poor old Descartes never figured that out, but found himself — at least as a ''[[res cogitans|thinking thing]]'' — and he found God, too — well, he ''thought'' he did — along the way, so his day wasn’t totally wasted. | |||
Yet, ''what is doubt''? What is this existential flummery, that fogs our interior on even the sunniest day? Whence that numbing smoke that more thickly fills our mortal cockpit, day by day? | Yet, ''what is doubt''? What is this existential flummery, that fogs our interior on even the sunniest day? Whence that numbing smoke that more thickly fills our mortal cockpit, day by day? | ||
The [[JC]] likes to rush in, as you know, where fools fear to tread. So let us try to achieve what Descartes | The [[JC]] likes to rush in, as you know, where fools fear to tread. So let us try to achieve what Descartes could not. If you cannot ''avoid'' it, at least put a ''name'' on it. So let us — [[for the avoidance of doubt]] — thoroughly define what we ''mean'' by “[[doubt]]”: | ||
:{{ftaod}} | :{{ftaod}} | ||