The Great Depression Essay Example for Free

The Great Depression Essay A large amount of literature including research and text books, exist on the subject of the Great Depression. It is considered by many economists as the worst economic crisis in American History. Statistics suggest that from the business cycle peak in 1929 to the trough in 1933, the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 39%. From 1929 to 1933, the unemployment rate rose from 3. 2% to 25% any may who had jobs were only able to work part-time. By 1933, 50% of American banks had failed. From 1929 to 1933, the consumer price index (CPI) fell by -25%. The Dow Jones industrial average fell -89. 2% between September 1929 and March 1933. Net investment was negative from 1931 to 1935 and the economy experienced a sharp decline in aggregate real income, then there were massive defaults and bankruptcies by business and households (Bernanke. S, 2004, White, 2009). But what caused the great depression? Or rather, why did the recession of 1929 turn into a depression? Calomiris (1983) remarks there is still very little consensus amongst economist on this question. Before Maynard Keynes (1936) General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, economist relied on the Classical approach both to manage and explain the Great Depression. However, the classical theory could not explain a lot of the data at the time; for instance, it could not explain the protracted unemployment (Keynes, 1936). This signified the need for a new theory of macroeconomics. Such a theory was provided by Keynes. The essence of Keynes theory is contained in the simple aggregate demand model. Keynes identified the collapse of the growth in the 1920s as part of the problem. In his opinion, the collapse of growth led to a reduction in investment opportunities and a downward shift in investment demand. The unprecedented levels of unemployment could also be explained by the collapse of aggregate spending. Keynes along with Irvin Fischer (1933) also identified the financial markets as important sources and propagators of economic decline during the Great Depression (Calomoris, 1983). However, the exact nature of this connection is still a hot topic of debate, and this is where much of the literature on the great depression can be found. According to Keynes theory of aggregate demand, monetary policy had no causal role in the Great Depression (Mishkin, 2007). Mishkin (2007 p 588) argues that this assumption was based on three pieces of evidence. He states that during the Great Depression; interest rates on U. S treasury securities were extremely low (Below 1%). To the early Keynesians, the low nominal interest rate meant that the monetary policy was easy – expansionary (Hamilton, 1987). The second assumption was underpinned by the lack of empirical evidence on the co-movement between nominal interest rates and investments spending. While the third assumption was based on the fact that surveys by macroeconomists carried on businessmen indicated that their decision to invest was not influenced by market interest rates (Mishkin, 2007). In 1963, Friedman and Schwartz published the Monetary History of the United States in which they outlined a theory implicating money supply as the major cause of the Great Depression. In their opinion, what transformed the recession of 1929 into a depression were the imprudent policies by the Federal Reserve, which led to the stock market crash; and to the waves of banking failures which reduced the money multiplier and the money stock (Bernanke, 1983a; Friedman and Swartz, 1963). The figure 1 below shows the close correlation between GDP and the money stock. Friedman and Swartz countered the Keynesians argument that interest rates on U. S. treasury securities and high grade corporate bonds were low was countered by the observation that interest rates on lower grade bonds rose radically during the peak of contraction (between 1930-1933) this indicated that monetary policy was tight (Mishkin, 2007). The second reason why the Keynesian assumptions were regarded as misleading on the question of the tightness of the monetary policy during the depression was that; in a period of deflation; the important interest-rate transmission mechanism is through the real interest rate and not the nominal interest rate, hence low nominal interest rates do not necessarily mean that cost of borrowing is low and that monetary policy is easy since public expectation of a reduction in price levels can increase real interest rates (Hiuzinga, 1986; Summers, 1984). A good example of how the real-nominal interest rate relationship affected the U. S. economy during the Great Depression was seen in the housing sector. Wheelock reports that even though the nominal value of mortgage dept peaked in 1930, deflation caused a rise in the real value of outstanding mortgage dept up to 1832. Thus the outstanding mortgage dept burden increased sharply during the contraction phase of the depression (Wheelock, 2008). Researchers also criticized the use of Structural Model evidence by Keynesians. Mishkin (2007) argues that the quality of this type of evidence is dictated by the goodness of the model used. Friedman and Swartz narrative on the Great depression was that the original trigger of the Great Depression was the, 1928, Federal Reserve attempt to contain inflated share prices at Wall Street which they attributed to speculative activity. To accomplish this, they raised the policy interest rate. This depressed interest-sensitive spending in areas such as construction and Motor industry. This in turn induced a drop in production and investments, which led to reduced hiring of workers by companies. The tightening of the monetary policy through the recession which begun in August 1929 precipitated the October 1929, stock market crash (Hamilton, 1987, Bernanke, 2002b). The stock market crash eroded the nation’s accumulated savings, leading to a reduction in aggregate demand. From 1930, the contracting economy triggered successive waves of widespread banking panics (Calomiris etal, 2003; Hamilton, 1987; Chandler, 1970). Bank failures and hoarding of cash increased both the currency deposit ratio and the reserve – deposit hence a decline in money stock; this added to the deflationary pressures (Bernanke, 2007b; White, 1984). They asserted that â€Å"failure by the Fed to reverse the decline in money stock with open market operations and loans to banks through discount windows added further pressure to the economy (Friedman, 1963). † According to them, the 1937 -1938 recession was triggered by the Fed’s attempt to stimulate lending by doubling of the required reserve – ratio, this had the opposite effect. Mishkin (2007) writes that the importance of this theory to most economists is that it opened a whole new connection between the financial sector and the macroeconomy. Another important contribution was that it suggested new research agenda; Calomiris (1993) summarized them thus: 1) Can the reduction in money stocks from 1930 to 1933 explain the bank failures or did they have a separate origin? 2) Was the demand for money stable given the low nominal short term interests rates in the 1930s or was there a liquidity trap 3) Could nominal price and wage rigidity offer an adequate explanation for the persistent stagnation during the 1930s? 4) Were policy failures by the Fed actions acts of omission or commission or did they represent the application of the old classical theories to new circumstances? 5) Were open market operations by the Fed, unaccompanied by reforms in the monetary and bank regulations, sufficient in reversing the 1930-1933 stagnation? Following the publication of the Monetary History, economist focused either on confirming Friedman and Swartz assertions or in researching the implications of their findings. For two decades, the focus was mainly on the first three questions. Unfortunately, economists restricted there inquiries within the framework of the sticky-price, IS-LM paradigm. This approach severely limited the search for alternative transmission mechanisms between financial markets and the macroeconomy (Bernanke, 1983). Support for the Monetarist theory has come from formal statistical tests which examined the correlations between money and aggregate spending (Mishkin, 2007) a number of researchers found that there was no liquidity trap during the 30s; therefore, money supply shocks could have had an important effect on aggregate output (Meltzer, 1963; Temin, 1989). Field argued that the pre-depression stock market boom increased money demand and that this was not offset by corresponding increase in money supply. This resulted in increases in the interest rates and in deflation (Field, 1984). Evidence corroborating Friedman-Swartz illiquidity hypothesis as the trigger of the bank failures came from data on bank suspensions aggregated at national or regional level, this data show a correlation between bank failures and turning points in indices of industrial production, the money supply, the money multiplier, interest rate, and deflation rate (Friedman, 1963; Wicker, 1980). According to White (1984, p 138), the first bank failures in the 1930 were not unique; rather, it was a continuation of the banking failures of the 1920s. Recently studies by Calomiris and Joseph (2003) have revealed a strong correlations between the characteristics of banks, the economic environment in which they operated and their chances of survival. The thesis that banks failures were not panic induced, but were a continuation of the bank failures of the 1920s, which were linked to bank overbuilding suggested a lesser role of bank failures as a transmission mechanism. Other critics â€Å"advocated additional exogenous expenditure shocks to explain the cause of the depression noting that the real money stock had not contracted during the early stages of the depression (Temin,1976; Bernanke,1983 ). † At the same time, some scholars argued that the reduction in money stocks during the initial stages of the depression was not large enough to trigger the depression (Meltzer, 2003) In short, economists realized that money shocks alone could not have transformed the recession into a depression. Thus, additional link were needed between the financial markets and the macroeconomy. Bernanke captured it this way in his 1983 research paper: â€Å"One problem is that there is no theory of monetary effect {per se} on the real economy that can explain protracted non neutrality. Another is that the reduction of money supply in the period seems quantitatively insufficient to explain the subsequent fall in output (Bernanke, 1983, p257)† The new paradigm shift came with the application of theoretical models of credit allocation under asymmetric information in imperfect markets to the Great Depression. Mishkin was the first to apply this model in his study of the impact of changes in household balance sheet and consumer spending during the Great Depression (Mishkin, 1978). He argued that â€Å"in the 1930s, the depressive effect of aggregate wealth reduction on consumption was compounded by the dept deflation which in turn reduced aggregate consumption demand. Using empirical evidence, Bernanke research suggests that the efficiency of credit allocation was reduced under imperfect market conditions of the 1930s and that aggregate demand was reduced by the resulting higher cost and reduced availability of credit (Bernanke, 1983). This process, in his opinion, can account for he protracted length of the great depression. Taken together, this new paradigm was not a rejection of Friedman and Swartz thesis, it merely showed that the monetary shock and other events in the early phase of the Depression prolonged the Depression through there effect on the institutional structure of the credit markets and the balance sheet of borrowers (White, 1984; Romer,1989). In short, macroeconomists have concluded that the tendency of banks to respond to deposit outflows and increased risk of loan defaults by freezing credit can aggravate recessions, magnifying declines in investment, production and asset prices (Calomiris, 2008) The focus on deflation and financial collapse throughout the world also suggested ways through which the depression was channeled to other countries. Currently, economists agree that the gold standard played an important role in transmitting the economic decline in America to the rest of the world (Campa, 1990; Bernanke, 2002b) under the gold standard; trade imbalances gave rise to international gold flows. In his analysis of international transmission of the American Depression, Kindleberger reasoned that that the stock market collapse and deflationary shocks triggered a liquidity squeeze, a reduction in bank lending and the international financial collapse of the 1930s i. e. the lack of access to credit forced less-developed countries to use up their gold and foreign exchange reserves; this forced them to sell old quantities of primary products at reduced prices (Kindleberger, 1973). He also noted that the depression was more protracted in countries which stuck to the gold standard The countries that abandoned gold pursued independent monetary policy and were able to rebound faster. International studies correlating adherence to the gold standard, deflation and continued economic decline have confirmed this argument (Bernanke and James, 1991; Eichengreen, 1992). Economists also believe that the enactment of The Smoot-Hawley Tariff which was supposed to protect American Farmers triggered a counterproductive wave of protectionist measures around the world, which worsened the depression (Draghi, 2009; Hamilton, 1987, Meltzer, 1963) Although most of these debates occurred after the Great Depression, scholars now agree that both inept fiscal and monetary policies transformed a normal business cycle into a depression. Since monetary contraction was part of the problem during the Depression. Currency devaluation and monetary expansions had to play a leading role in the recovery process. A number of commentators have shown that the American money supply increased by 42% between 1933 and 1937 and worldwide monetary expansion led to a lowering of interest rates and easy access to credit (Mishkin, 1991). Economists argue that since fiscal expansion can reduce expectation of deflation, they can reduce the cost of borrowing (Romer, 2009). Keynes theory that government spending, tax cuts, and monetary expansion are essential in countering recession can also be justified in light of historical evidence. Economists reason that the massive government spending, such as the New deal program {specifically Work Progress Administration (WPA) and Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)} reignited the economy (Calomiris and Mason 2003, Romer 1989, Temin 1989). In fact, the general consensus among scholars is that the economy â€Å"American economy began to recover with a new monetary expansion and spending in preparation for war (White, 2009b). † Concerning Banking sector reform, the view on the Bank Holiday is that it was a dramatic and effective remedy. The other reforms have also drawn support from Great Depression scholars (Blinder, 2008; Gapper, 2007; White, 2009b). These reforms saw the creation of a number of regulations and institutions, Banking Act of 1933 (commonly known as Glass Steagall Act) – the act prohibited commercial banks from underwriting of dealing in corporate securities. Insurance of bank deposits by FDIC was designed to prevent depression type bank runs. SEC regulated investment and Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) guaranteed Residential mortgage loans. Collectively, scholars now believe that these regulations insulated America’s banking system from the booms and busts of the financial markets (Russell, 2008). Bernanke (1983 p2) â€Å"argues that only with the rehabilitation of the financial system in 1933-35 did the economy begin its slow emergence from the Great Depression. † The 2007 Economic recession The economic literature on the current recession is still limited, however adequate amount of literature exist on the impact of the down turn on the U. S. economy. The Economic Report of the President Jan, 2009 gives a comprehensive coverage of how the recession started; where it started and what is to be done. A large amount of literature can also be found on the causes of the crisis. among others. In terms of impact, the reports from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) indicates that from Dec 2007 to May 2009, America has had 57 bank failures; the unemployment rate has increased to 8. 9%; the economy has declined by – 3. 3% from the second quarter 2008 – first quarter of 2009; from Sept 2008 to may 2009, the federal government has increased the money stock by 125% and over the same period the biggest fall in the Dow Jones industrial stands at -53. 8%. The outlook is equally dire; most analysts have predicted a recession that may last up to two years (Roubini, 2009) Moody’s Investors Services (MIS), while further job losses are also expected have predicted increased foreclosures, while further job losses are also expected. But the impact has not been limited to America. The International Monetary Funds (IMF) World Economic Outlook published in Jan 2009 painted a bleak picture of the world economy in general: They predict that the real global growth will be close to zero; in the same report, growth in advanced world economies was projected at -2%. In his report, presented to the V Symposium on International Trade (Feb 20, 2009) Cline reported that the economic crisis in America has triggered a highly synchronized global recession, which has seen a contraction in all economies (see the Graph below showing global growth over 3 decades (Cline, 2009). Figure, 3 Showing the Synchronization of Global Recession Taken together, commentators are unanimous that, in term of severity, this recession is still mild vis-a-vis The Great Depression. Shiller (2009) writes that a lot of the upheavals in the economy have not been seen since the Great Depression. He cites the stock market volatility, the bank failures, the housing bust, the breakdown in intermediation, and the near zero interest rate. Besides the statistical comparisons, the current debate and research effort is focused on how the how the crisis started. The proximate consensus is that: the mortgage security backed housing boom in America it to blame and that the origination and distributions of this paper assets is at the heart of the problem (Markus; 2008; Grotty, 2009; Bernanke, 2009; Gapper, 2009) at the same time, researchers maintain that the crisis in the banking sector, was not independent, but resulted from distortions and incentives created by past policy actions. Blundell-Wignall, etal (2009), in there paper presented at a Reserve bank of Australia conference, averred that the current financial crisis is caused by global macro policies affecting liquidity and by very poor regulatory frame work. More specifically, economists recognize that any theory of causality, must, among other things, explain how the housing boom started, describe the factors behind the explosion of the residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS), how the banking crisis was triggered and the policy distortions that made it possible (Tett, 2007; Rajan 2009; Grotty, 2009). The findings of a number of researchers who have studied the causes of the current financial crisis in America conclude that the policy distortions started with gradual undermining of the Glass Steagall Act, from the 1980s; and the rise of the neo-classical theory of free markets (which advocates markets deregulation) Shiller (2005, p 43) argues that business cycles in the financial markets would not have been a major problem had banks been kept off the asset markets. The same argument is advanced by Summers (2008) who asserts that the deregulations in the banking sector exposed the banks to the bubbles and bursts of asset markets. Wray (2009) traces the poor regulatory framework in the U. S to the New Financial Architecture (NFA) which he claims is represented by a globally networked system of giant bank conglomerates and shadow banking system of investment bank, hedge funds and bank created special investment vehicles (SIV). In short, most scholars agree that the Riegle-Neal interstate banking and Branching efficiency Act of 1994 and the repeal of Glass Steagall Act in 1999 through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Act played a crucial role in laying the foundation which led to this crisis (Mishkin, 2009, p 268; Grotty, 2009). Atkinson, Wigall, and Lee (2009) have also concluded that the Basel II accord on international bank regulation also opened an arbitrage opportunity for banks which led to the acceleration of off-balance-sheet activities. In the same paper, they claim that SEC 2004 decision to allow investment banks to manage there own risk was a major policy blunder. Soros puts it this way. â€Å"Since 1980, regulations have been progressively relaxed until they have practically disappeared. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦authorities could no longer calculate their risks and started relying on the risk management methods of the banks themselves (Soros 2008)† At the same time, scholars have concluded that the other root cause of the problem is traceable to the easy availability of credit. Diamond, etal (2009, p 615) argue that the policies affecting liquidity availed a lot of funds to the banks. The 1% federal interest rate, the % interest rate in Japan, the fixed exchange rate in china and large reserves of sovereign wealth funds are listed in his paper as sources of cheap credit which fueled the economic boom in America led to an inflation of prices around the world. The claims that interest rates were low are supported by statistics which indicates that real short term interest rates were negative from mid 2001 to mid 2005, given the modest values of inflation (Yellen, 2008) The low interest rates, in turn, ignited a housing boom. Fig, 3 shows the Case-Shiller house index from 2000-2008. According to Grauwe (2009), the doubling of US house prices from 2000-2006 was not underpinned by real changes in the U. S economy. In the same survey, he reports that between July 2006 and July 2007 the value of Dow Jones and the SP 500 rose by 30% while GDP increased only by 5%. Taken together, researchers have concluded that the collapse of the real estate market in 2006 was the origin of the crisis. The rising foreclosures turned the credit boom into a bust. however, economist have at the same time stated that the severity of the housing market bust has been compound by the weakness inherent in the financial system (Calomiris, 2008; Rajan; 2009; Bookstabber, 2007) namely; use of bank deposits for speculative activities- this operation was made possible though special investment vehicles (SIV) sometimes called shadow banking; new financial innovations – derivative products like Credit Defaults Swaps (CDS) and Collateral Dept Obligations (CDO): they have been described as complex and overly opaque; failure of rating agencies to properly calculate the risks embedded in this instrument; and failures by regulators and supervisors. Some have added that the formulas used to compute the level of risk in this instrument was questionable and that the development of riskier higher order CDOs tended to magnify the systemic risk (Volcker, 2008; Veneroso, 2007; Soros, 2007; Rajan 2009 b). Sorros (2008) argues that the new types of mortgage-backed securities central to the boom were too complex and opaque to be priced correctly. Grotty (2009 p 40) also argues that these instruments encouraged fraud since most investors did not even know what they were buying. That when the risk inherent in these products became apparent in 2007, investors pulled back from structured products in general, banks had to re-absorb the losses incurred by their off balance entities – SIV, straining there balance sheets in the process. Moral hazard problems and adverse selection worsened with time lending to a credit freeze which led to a slow down in economic activities around the world (Mishkin, 2007, Folkman etal, 2007; Dornbusch etal, 2000) Concerning solutions, most policy makers agree that to reverse the recession, there is need for closely coordinated intervention at global level and that efforts must focus simultaneously on fiscal, monetary and financial stability policies. The underlying assumption is that restoring confidence in the prospects for employment and income and returning to balanced growth are the only way out of the recession (Draghi, 2009). Strong expansionary fiscal policies, with measures to support demand and safeguard banking and financial system have been instituted throughout the western world. The $ 800 billion dollar stimulus plans in America has been seen as bold policy initiative, although many economist are worried about its repercussion on the national dept. The proponents of this plan see it as the best way to either create jobs or prevent job losses (Romer, 2009). At the same time, most central banks around the world have rapidly lowered there interest rates. Draghi (2009) argues that in the initial stages of a crisis, rapid disinflation should not be allowed to turn into a deflation. To keep the banks afloat, central banks have injected large quantities of money into the system; in some instances, they have bought corporate dept to keep financial institution afloat. Russell (2009) notes that reactivating financial intermediation is also essential since capital requirements cannot be satisfied by the state alone. To achieve this goal, economists agree on three basics steps. The need to guarantee liabilities to stop bank runs; taking the banks through a stress test to identify the banks with solvency problems and ring-fencing the problematic securities or transferring them to separate entities such as bad banks followed by recapitalization (Wheelock, 2009; White, 2009, Draghi, 2009) are possible ways of unfreezing bank lending. At the same time, economists agree that a solution to the housing crisis is necessary. Lastly economists have pointed out that there is a need to reform securitization, credit rating agencies, poor risk modeling and underwriting standards, as well as corporate governance lapses (Krugnall etal, 2008). Some economist has also concluded that massive failure in corporate governance in some companies reflects poor incentive structures for decision, thus bank reforms should be extended to corporate remuneration practices (White, 2009; Blinder, 2008, Crotty, 2009) Reference Bekaert, G, Harvey, C. R. , 2005, â€Å"Market Integration and Contagion,† Journal of Business, Vol. 78, (No. 1), pp. 39–96. Bernanke, B. S. , 1983. Nonmonetary effects of the financial crisis in the propagation of the great depression. American Economic Review 73, 257–276. Bernanke, Ben (2002). On Milton Friedmans Ninetieth Birthday, at the Conference to Honor Milton Friedman, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, November 8. www. federalreserve. gov. (accessed on May, 10, 2009) Blinder, Alan, 2008. What Created This Monster? , New York Times, 23. Bookstabber, R. , 2007. The next financial crisis starts here, Financial Times, August 23. Calomiris, W. C. , Mason, J. R. , 2003. Fundamentals, panics, and bank distress during the depression. American Economic Review 93 (5), 1615–1646. Calomiris, C. W. , Financial Factors in the Great Depression. The Journal of Economics Perspectives, Vol 7 (2) pp 61-85.

The Reason Behind the Flooding of Great Salt Lake Essay -- Terry Willi

The Reason Behind the Flooding of Great Salt Lake In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams blames a natural disaster—the overflowing of the Great Salt Lake in Utah--for the destruction of the place she loved most in the world, the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. What Williams attempts to explain, however, is that this disaster wasn’t really â€Å"natural† at all. Refuge is critiqued by some for being over-dramatized, and Terry Tempest Williams is often criticized for blaming the world and others for the loss of the bird refuge. In fact, Williams is correct when she says that humans are responsible for the flooding of Salt Lake, which was caused by the construction of a railroad causeway that split Great Salt Lake into two bodies of water. The author is not a reckless finger-pointer, she is a realist. In describing the bird refuge before the flooding, Williams goes into great detail about the abundance of birds and vegetation that inhabited her paradise: â€Å"Avocets and black-necked stilts are knee deep in water alongside interstate 80. Flocks of California gulls stand on a disappearing beach†¦I inhale the salty air. It is like ocean, even the lake is steel-blue with whitecaps†(Williams 30). In a visit to the bird refuge with her grandmother, she describes the refuge as a place full of life, with countless birds among beautiful plants and wildlife. Indeed, the bird refuge was a sanctuary to her; there was something magical, she writes, about seeing the thousands of different birds in one place, a sight that kept her going back. The rise of Great Salt Lake engulfed the refuge, and as the flooding continued, the population of birds plummeted, Williams’ sanctuary turned into a graveyard filled with only memories of the birds she grew ... ...e the ones most affected by flooding, are also those where the poorest residents live. In 1987, three pumps were used to pump 800,000 acres of water into the West Pond of Salt Lake in an attempt to even out the water levels on the two sides of the lake. This effort to fix the lakes’ problems, which cost $60 million, became known as the West Desert Pumping Project. The project went on for more than two years, until 2.7 million acre-feet of water, containing 695 million tons of salt, were pumped out. (www.ugs.state.ut.us/online/PI-39/pi39pg08 ) These pumps were successful in balancing the lake’s water levels, and remain on standby in case of another disastrous rise. It remains to be seen, however, whether this corrective measure will restore Great Salt Lake’s wildlife—and particularly the birds that Terry Tempest Williams treasured—to their pre-causeway levels.

Problems of Population

Pollution is today, probably, the greatest problem that faces mankind. There is a saying in English that it is an ill bird that fouls its own nest. And human beings are, collectively speaking, fouling their nest at the increasing rate. It is an alarming picture. We are polluting the air, which we need to breathe, the earth from which we derive all our food, and the waters from which wÐ µ, of course, derive the water we need to live, to drink, and for other purposes.So all the elements that surround us — there are three elements: earth, air and water — are being increasingly polluted by the activities of man, by industrial activities, for the most part. And pollution, of course, knows no frontiers. One country that pollutes will export its pollution to others. The radioactivity, for example, that was generated by the catastrophe at Chernobyl four years ago, four or five years ago, was carried in clouds across Europe, and some of these radioactive clouds, something which have been polluted in this way, actually produced rains which fell on parts of England and Wales.And we had a problem with the cattle which, of course, are fed on the grass, which had been rained on, by this polluted water, so we had problems in a small way, even in England as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. But Chernobyl is only one instant among many. It's a dramatic and alarming symptom of what is going on in all societies, all advanced industrial societies, not just in one. It's common to all, it's a common problem for all of us and in fact, in a sense, it takes us beyond all our ideologies. We must, in fact, look at this in a totally neutral, totally objective way, not for the blaming of one, one economic system or another.It's something which is, as I say, frowning both ends. It's really a function of advanced economic systems, of advanced, technologically advanced countries. It's basically the result of the industrialization which began in England, of course, in the 18th century and in above all, it's a result of the increasing use of and dependence upon fossil fuels: primarily, of course, coal and oil for both industry and transport. Modern industry, modern civilizations are run almost entirely on oil, mainly upon oil, to a less extent also, of course, on coke coal.But oil, it is which quite literally†¦ oil's the wheels of industry throughout the world. And the desire for oil, the need for oil, the craving for oil, the guzzling of oil is one of the great phenomena of the 20th century. We know, of course, that oil is decreasing, the stocks of it are decreasing inevitably and that someday, since they are finite, they will run out altogether, but that day hasn't, of course, arrived yet and new reserves are found from time to time, to enable us to go on in the same old ways.But the problems are increasing. Some day we shall have to find means of transportation by means of inventing some new kind of transport which isn't dependent on oil, perhaps, upon electri ­city or something, like that, because electricity itself is oil-dependent to some extent. We shall have to become less and less oil dependent, whereas, in fact, in the last hundred years or so, we've become more and more oil-dependent.First, dependence on oil is something, this rapidly dwindling resource is one of our major problems, and we hope all of us, I think, that the scientists will be able to find alternative sources of energy, solar energy, water, water power from the seas, so to say, and it is derived from sea power and the building of dams. This will take the place, we hope, on the oil-fired and coal-fired power stations which we depend on so much today and, of course, nearly all our transport is fuelled by oil or by its derivative — petrol. We shall have to do something about that.There'll be required a technological revolution. We hope we'll acquire one, at any rate, which will bring about a new way of life which is less pollutant, less polluting , less dangerous to our environment. Let us look a little bit at the picture today. We are all aware of this; in order to satisfy our almost boundless need for oil today we send huge tankers to trans ­port it from one country, where it is to be found, where it is drawn up from the ground, to many countries, of course, that have no oil of their own at all, they have to import it.And then, of course, the issued tankers sometimes sink and sometimes have collisions, and vast spillages occur, causing oil slicks which are sometimes miles and miles long. As a result of these oil slicks, which gradually come towards the coast, we have a poisoning of fish life and sea birds, and this makes the beaches unfit for either the local residents or for holiday-makers to use. And it's a dirty sight, a tragic sight.The sea birds, for example, are covered in thick black oil, and they have no chance of survival unless people can get to them early and clean their bodies, clean their wings of this oil. So the great cost to natural life – we've been endangering the other creatures of Earth in our greed for more and more oil. And the cost, the economic cost of cleaning up these oil slicks is enormous and, of course, fines that are imposed upon owners of tankers from which oil is spilt, but the fines themselves are derisory, they are not nearly heavy enough.Many tanker captains deliberately flush out the holes of their vessels in foreign ports leaving the foul mess for other people to clean up, and the fines they pay, if they are caught, which is not always the case, are literally peanuts. And then there are carbon emissions from our factories and from the traffic. The emissions from the exhausts of cars and other vehicles on the roads are largely responsible for the atmospheric pollution from which we are suffering these days.These emissions cause acid rain which, when it falls upon the ground, is harmful to plant life, and to some extent, to animal life too. We are told by t hose who are supposed to know about these things that the atmospheric temperature throughout the world, the average temperature is rising very slightly, and the result of this is so-called global warming, which is only by 1 or 2 degrees, perhaps not even as much as 2 degrees will be the so-called greenhouse effect.This can be described in the following way: the ice at the Pole caps, the North Pole and the South Pole, will begin to melt as a result of this global warming and causing the level of the oceans to rise, and this, in turn, will flood low-lying coastal areas in various parts of the world, thereby, of course, not only causing disaster to people who live there, but also depriving man of some of the soil — the earth which he needs to grow his food on.And as further results will be, this happens, that the climate in many parts of the globe will change, maybe, of course, some parts will become warmer and may be better from that point of view, but others undoubtedly will s uffer. We can't know in total whether this will be a good or a bad thing, but we shouldn't just assume blindly that all will be well. We must try and plan and look on the gloomy side in a sense. We must assume the worst; we must take the worst case analysis, as it's called in England.It’s really quite a moot point today whether mankind will perish by flood or by frying, whether it'll be flooded out of existence or fried out of existence. For many decades after the Second World War, once the atom bomb had been invented, people were afraid above all of a nuclear war. Nu ­clear war was what it was feared, would wipe out mankind because, if there were Ð ° wÐ °r and nuclear weapons were used, and rockets with the nuclear warheads — â€Å"nukes† as the Americans call them – were used, then there's little hope for mankind, there'll be no victor in such a war.Everybody would be vanquished and, of course, the pollution would occur as a result, as well as the d evastation would probably, or could easily wipe out mankind, or if not wipe out mankind, then make lives, all life that was left unbearable, as to be almost not worth thinking about, not worth contemplating. There is, of course, an ever horrifying doomsday scenario, from which it's to be really gloomy about this sort of thing. This is the possibility of the Sun baking us all, frying us all.I haven't spoken about the possibility of flood from melting of the ice caps at the two Poles, but there's this other possibility which is opening up now as a result of man's activity in space and on earth, of course. Some of the hydrocarbons that we release into the atmosphere, es ­pecially those from the aerosol cans together, it is believed, with the rockets that we launch into space cause holes to appear, large holes to appear in the ozone layer above the Poles, above the Pole caps.And it is this layer, and this alone, incidentally, this ozone layer which prevents us all and which protects u s, in fact, from the harmful effects of the ultraviolet rays given off by the sun. Were there no ozone layer, Ð ¾f course, life would not be life as we know it. It would not be sustainable, and for our type of life it would be too hopeless, the rays, ultraviolet rays would harm us. We know this is so, when we go sunbathing we give caution not to expose our bodies too much to the effect of the sunrays. As if all this were not enough, we pollute our water in various other ways.We pollute it not only, that is to say, with oil slicks, spillages of one source or another. In many places, and certainly this is true in England, and probably true in other countries, I'm sure, it's true in many continental countries on the Mediterranean coast, for example, in many places untreated sewage is discharged directly into the sea, instead of being treated and used on the land, as would seem to be possible, of course. Side by side with this, we use huge quantities of chemical ferti ­lizers in our agriculture.Some of these fertilizers seep down into the underground water shelves and aquifers and finds its way into the river system together with chemicals discharged by factories, which are often sited near rivers and lakes, of course, straight into the river or the sea. We are polluting our waters with chemicals, with oil and with untreated sewage. And, of course, the oceans are huge, of course, they cover more of the earth surface than land, as we all know, but they can't endlessly prove a kind of flushing system, purification system for modern civilizations.The harmful chemicals which are deposited in one way or another into our rivers, our seas, our lakes and our oceans, get into parti ­cularly harmful metals, such as lead and cadmium; get into the food chain and the water supply. And, of course, we are absolutely depen ­dent on food, on safe food and water which is fit to drink. However, we mustn't be too gloomy about this, the mankind is capable not only of dirtying, of messing up the planet, it is also capable of cleaning it up, if he applies himself rationally to this problem.Many rivers have in recent years been cleaned up, that is to say, made a lot cleaner and the matter is clean as long as they would wish and they certainly have been improved immensely, the Thames in London is an example of this. Fish which have not been seen in the river Thames for decades are now reappearing there now. Of course, many of them are put in deliberately as the river is restocked. But the fish which would not have stood a chance of surviving in the Thames a few years ago are now able to survive in that environment, which is very encouraging, of course.There is another form of pollution I'd like to speak of briefly. It is not quite so harmful to the human race as a whole, but it is certainly deleterious, has a deleterious effect on the environment. It is one another environmental problem we have to deal with. This is the, what I call, noise pollution. This can come from various sources, for example, aircraft with the loud engines. These engines can be made quieter, and there is much effort going into making them less noisy all the time, but they are still enormously disruptive in their effects.Anybody who lives near an airport knows what a terrible noise these planes can make after they take off or when they are land ­ing. Some people can adapt to this, but not everybody can. It is not true that if you live near a noisy place, you'll adapt to it. I know from personal experience that a noisy traffic can have a continuously bad effect on one's health, because it disturbs one's sleep, keeps one awake and keeps one in a nervous state. Some people adapt to it, but many people, quite a large minority of people never adapt to noisy conditions.And the traffic noise and the bubble aircraft noise are the worst offenders in this respect. It's not only, of course, aircraft or road vehicles which cause a noise, but other things, such as the well-kn own ghetto blasters, as they call these, they are very loud hi-fi systems, or loudspeaker systems that they have in pubs and other places of entertainment. These are played at full blast, hence the name â€Å"blasters†, and they are very harmful to people's health. In the long run they can affect hearing.There is no doubt about it, scientists have shown that young people who are habitually exposed to very loud noises, to this deafening loud music, will in a course of years suffer an impairment in their hearing and can, in some cases, become deaf, which is a heavy price to pay for listening to loud rock music or something else of the kind. They can enjoy just as well at a lower volume surely, but the fashion today is to play these things as loud as possible, without regard for those around who, perhaps, don't want to hear these things.It's not uncommon for people in our country to play their transistors in their cars and then to open the car window and the sound comes out, and everybody hears whether they want to or not. I usually don't want to hear it. This is an offensive thing to do to one's fellow creatures to impose a sudden noise on them if, so to say, they don't want to hear. It's antisocial, to say the very least of it. It annoys me in ­tensely.And some shops where they sell hi-fi equipment will have that equipment, will have some music playing usually, usually junk music, I call it, playing very loud and such you can hear from the street. Why should I be, why should I be punished, as if my ears be afflicted with the sounds of music I don't wish to hear, which I don't regard in any way artistic or aesthetic, just because some other people are thoughtless, too thoughtless to turn the sound down. So we have created a problem, perhaps, of a nuisance. The same thing happens, of course, to transistors.Young people sometimes take a transistor with them, say, to a beach in the country and even in the town, and play it loud. And so all people are force d to listen to, are forced to hear it. This shouldn't be possible in fact, on our railways, I'm not sure about the buses, and other forms of public transport, certainly on our railways, it's illegal, it's technically illegal to play a transistor. It's perfectly acceptable to play one of these players, one of these personalized hi-fis which you wear, you just have earphones, walkmans, but not to play a transistor.We've created smokeless zones in our cities to rid ourselves of some of the pollution. Now, of course, we are not allowed to burn coal on our fires in most areas in England. In the country you still can have this kind of smoke, but in the towns one is not allowed to have an open fire which burns coal. One has to have a special smokeless fuel, and this, of course, has reduced the pollution and the fog and the smoke in the towns enormously. And even in my life-time I've noticed a huge difference in this respect.When I was a young man, it was common in November, particularly at the end of the year, to expe ­rience terrible fogs — â€Å"pea-soupers† we used to call them. And that was a mixture, of course, of industrial smoke, of smoke from all the chimneys in the houses and fog, and it really did look green, and the description of â€Å"pea-soupers† is very appropriate. It did look greenish, a horrible colour. It choked you, of course, and you got black deposits in your nose and so on. It was foul. People used to walk around with handkerchiefs and scarves wrapped around their noses and their eyes.They got into your eyes, as well, and it's really quite dreadful. We've managed to overcome that problem by the introduction of smokeless zones, I think some time in the late 1950s or early 60s. We could and should do something about the noise that we're creating, that is creat ­ing a nuisance for us. In a similar way, we could, in fact, impose re ­strictions on people. We have started in a small way but we need to go a lot further in th is respect. So all these problems, these problems of pollution are man-made problems.It is we, the human race who have caused these problems by failure to appreciate the extent of the damage we're doing to our environment by mismanagement, even when we do know the effects, we don't always take measures to secure a clean and safe environment. But we know now more and more of the matter, how very delicately balanced the ecology of our world is and that if we go on as we are doing, we might, well, disrupt it and alter it irreversibly, and to the detriment of all, all the human race. We've got to be extremely careful how we're moving in this respect.There is, as we say, only one spaceship — earth; we have only one planet, we are all in the same spaceship, all in the same boat, as we say. And we could perish unless we alter our attitudes, alter our industrial methods and ruthlessly punish those who are responsible for polluting parts of our Earth. And if we don't, I can quite trut hfully say that the sands of time are running out for mankind. *Sort some of the underlined vocabulary under the following headings (to have at least 5 items for each): a.words and phrases that show the attitude of people to environmental issues; b. the hottest environmental problems we are facing; c. the dramatic consequences of man’s activities; d. reasons for / causes of /sources of pollution and other ecological problems; e. ways of dealing with these problems; words and phrases that show the attitude of people to environmental issues; the hottest environmental problems we are facing; the dramatic consequences of man’s activities; reasons for / causes of /sources of pollution and other ecological problems; ways of dealing with these problems;

Analysis Of Rene Descartes s Meditations On First...

Philosophy Essay 1 Rene Descartes was born in in La Haye, France, in 1596 and he studied at La Fleche Jesuit College and University of Poitiers. Descartes also lived in Germany, Holland and Sweden. He then worked in the army as a private councillor and then as a court philosopher. Descartes book ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ was first published in 1641. The edition used to write this essay was edited by John Cottingham and was published by the Cambridge University Press in 1996. Descartes was the first philosophy to be influenced by autonomy and physics and he also worked it all out for himself by not accepting the views of previous philosophers. Through the meditations, the meditator explores the ontological questions about being,†¦show more content†¦The argument in Descartes second meditation is that he wants to prove to the reader that the human mind is better known than the human body. In this meditation Descartes is looking for basic belief which has to provide some foundation for knowledge. The meditator is going to do this through a series of Sceptical doubts. First he will doubt his sense-perception because the evidence received from the outer-senses can be contradictory. This means that he will call all his sense into doubt as if he had no senses at all. Descartes will also doubt the physical world by believing that we might be dreaming. Descartes finally begins to doubt reality and the existence of God. However, he also believes that there is a presence of a type of God or evil deceiver. Descartes then begins to start his first statement with ‘I think’. He believes that if he is having these doubts and that a god or evil deceiver is also sending him doubts that he must exist. In the First Meditation, Descartes introduced the method of doubt to the reader. He then starts to use this method, he then begins to put all his thoughts into doubt and he begins to wonder where his thoughts have come from; if they have been implanted him in by a god or an evil deceiver. By this point Descartes has convinced himself that nothing is certain or that a god or evil deceiver has implanted these doubts into his mind. This means that if either of these points is trueShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Rene Descartes s Meditations On First Philosophy1066 Words   |  5 Pageswhat is reality? Among these writers were Renà ¨ Descartes and George Berkeley, who respectively argued that everything perceived must be real due to God being unable to deceive, and that the physical world only exists in one’s mind. In my view, it is not certain that the physical world is real, but one should act as if it is. Renà ¨ Descartes, in Meditations on First Philosophy, wrote each section after successive â€Å"meditations.† In Descartes’s first meditation, he claims it is unable to be proven whetherRead MoreDescartes’ Cogito Argument Successfully Shows the Evil Demon Argument is Unsound888 Words   |  4 PagesDoes Descartes’ Cogito argument successfully show that the Evil Demon Argument is unsound? In this essay I will attempt to show that the philosopher, Renà ¨ Descartes’ Cogito Argument successfully proves the Evil Demon Argument to be unsound. By an analysis of the structure of the arguments and what they prove, I will show the evil demon argument to be unsound. An argument is unsound when the premises as false and the argument is invalid. This analysis of both structure and content will eventuateRead MoreThe Dream Inside Of A Dream By Christopher Nolan1683 Words   |  7 PagesFinal Paper: Descartes The possibility of having a dream inside of a dream is an idea that has been discussed far and wide. However, before Inception came out in 2010 by director Christopher Nolan, many people in the modern world may not have ever considered this idea. Nonetheless, this idea of â€Å"a dream inside a dream† has been around since 1640, when Rene Descartes published Meditations. In Inception, Christopher Nolan uses Descartes ideas to enhance the storyline of his film. In this paperRead More Rene Descartes Essay1094 Words   |  5 PagesRene Descartes was a famous French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He was arguably the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a serious effort to defeat skepticism. His views about knowledge and certainty, as well as his views about the relationship between mind and body have been very influential over the last three centuries. Descartes was born at La Haye (now called Descartes), and educated at the Jesuit College of La Flà ¨che between 1606 and 1614. Descartes later claimedRead MoreThe On First Philosophy By Rene Descartes1699 Words   |  7 PagesIn his work Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, Renà © Descartes sets out to establish a set of indubitable truths for the sciences. He begins by discarding all of his beliefs, then works to rebuild his beliefs based on careful thought. Descartes clearly states this goal, saying in the First Meditation, â€Å"I will work my way up†¦ I will accomplish this by putting aside everything that admits of the least doubt† (I, 17). He is able to establish his own existence, but struggles to move beyondRead MoreProposed Seven Philosophers On The Existence Of God And Their Development Of These Ideas1413 Words   |  6 Pagesphilosophers are as follows: (1) Socrates, (2) Plato, (3) Aristotle, (4) Francis Bacon, (5) St. Augustine, (6) Thomas A quinas, and (7) Rene DesCartes. The specific three I want to focus on being; St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes. Lastly, I will proceed to relate their ideas on the existence of God and their development of these ideas. St. Augustine s epistemology is rationalization. In his argument for the existence of God, he is referring to varying degrees of perfection otherwiseRead MoreA Brief Biography of Rene Descartes1580 Words   |  6 Pagesworks of philosopher Rene Descartes, who had endorsed the mechanistic conception of the world and the human body by coining notions such as mind, substance, and the knowledge argument; although his notions were not always accepted, he managed to provide valid support. Born in France, Rene Descartes, dubbed The Father of Modern Philosophy was, in a way, a Renaissance man having contributed influence amongst subjects such science, mathematics, psychology, and philosophy. Descartes was the medium ofRead MoreAnalysis Of Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy Essay1758 Words   |  8 Pages The Role of God in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy In his work Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, Renà © Descartes sets out to establish a set of indubitable truths for the sciences. He begins by discarding all of his beliefs, then works to rebuild his beliefs based on careful thought. Descartes clearly states this goal, saying in the First Meditation, â€Å"I will work my way up†¦ I will accomplish this by putting aside everything that admits of the least doubt† (I, 17). HeRead MoreEssay on Descartes Failure4852 Words   |  20 PagesDescartes Failure In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes strives first and foremost to provide an infallibly justified foundation for the empirical sciences, and second to prove the existence of God. I will focus on the first and second meditations in my attempt to show that, in his skepticism of the sources of knowledge, he fails to follow the rules he has set out in the Discourse on Method. First I claim that Descartes fails to draw the distinction between pure sensation andRead MoreLanguage and the Destiny of Man12402 Words   |  50 PagesÅžtefan Afloroaei / Descartes and the â€Å"metaphysical dualism† Descartes and the â€Å"metaphysical dualism†: Excesses in interpreting a classic* Al.I. Cuza University of Iasi Abstract The article focuses on one of the most serious accusations brought against Descartes and modern philosophy, namely â€Å"the dualism of substance†. The accusers claim that the human body and soul were viewed as completely separate; consequently, their relationship as such and the united being of man become incomprehensible. As Analysis Of Rene Descartes s Meditations On First... Since seemingly the dawn of humankind, there has been a question that has prompted many different answers: what is reality? Among these writers were Renà ¨ Descartes and George Berkeley, who respectively argued that everything perceived must be real due to God being unable to deceive, and that the physical world only exists in one’s mind. In my view, it is not certain that the physical world is real, but one should act as if it is. Renà ¨ Descartes, in Meditations on First Philosophy, wrote each section after successive â€Å"meditations.† In Descartes’s first meditation, he claims it is unable to be proven whether anything besides one’s mind actually exists, using dreams as an example. He mentions how dreams deceive him into believing things†¦show more content†¦As an example of how things may not be as they seem, he takes a â€Å"piece of wax [that was] taken...from [a] honeycomb† (464). He notes that â€Å"it has not yet lost all the honey flavor,† â€Å"retains some of the the scent of the flowers from which it was collected,† and that â€Å"its color, shape, and size are manifest† (464). Then, however, as he brings it close to a fire, â€Å"the remaining traces of the honey flavor [disappear],† â€Å"the scent [vanishes],† â€Å"the color [changes],† the original shape [disappears],† â€Å"its size [increases],† and it becomes â€Å"liquid and hot† (464). Then he asks: â€Å"what was there in the wax that was so distinctly grasped† (465)? He theorizes that the wax was never what it originally seemed, but merely dressed up in other things that gave it its appearance. Going off of this, he asks if this is an isolated incident—implying it is not. In his third meditation, Descartes’s view changes drastically. He says, considering that it is self-evident that â€Å"something cannot come into being out of nothing, and also that what is more perfect (that is, what contains in itself more reality) cannot come into being from what is less perfect† (468), God not only has to exist as the source of everything, but he must be perfect. Going off of this, he puts forward that God â€Å"cannot be a deceiver, for it isShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Rene Descartes s Meditations On First Philosophy 1399 Words   |  6 PagesPhilosophy Essay 1 Rene Descartes was born in in La Haye, France, in 1596 and he studied at La Fleche Jesuit College and University of Poitiers. Descartes also lived in Germany, Holland and Sweden. He then worked in the army as a private councillor and then as a court philosopher. Descartes book ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ was first published in 1641. The edition used to write this essay was edited by John Cottingham and was published by the Cambridge University Press in 1996. Descartes wasRead MoreDescartes’ Cogito Argument Successfully Shows the Evil Demon Argument is Unsound888 Words   |  4 PagesDoes Descartes’ Cogito argument successfully show that the Evil Demon Argument is unsound? In this essay I will attempt to show that the philosopher, Renà ¨ Descartes’ Cogito Argument successfully proves the Evil Demon Argument to be unsound. By an analysis of the structure of the arguments and what they prove, I will show the evil demon argument to be unsound. An argument is unsound when the premises as false and the argument is invalid. This analysis of both structure and content will eventuateRead MoreThe Dream Inside Of A Dream By Christopher Nolan1683 Words   |  7 PagesFinal Paper: Descartes The possibility of having a dream inside of a dream is an idea that has been discussed far and wide. However, before Inception came out in 2010 by director Christopher Nolan, many people in the modern world may not have ever considered this idea. Nonetheless, this idea of â€Å"a dream inside a dream† has been around since 1640, when Rene Descartes published Meditations. In Inception, Christopher Nolan uses Descartes ideas to enhance the storyline of his film. In this paperRead More Rene Descartes Essay1094 Words   |  5 PagesRene Descartes was a famous French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He was arguably the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a serious effort to defeat skepticism. His views about knowledge and certainty, as well as his views about the relationship between mind and body have been very influential over the last three centuries. Descartes was born at La Haye (now called Descartes), and educated at the Jesuit College of La Flà ¨che between 1606 and 1614. Descartes later claimedRead MoreThe On First Philosophy By Rene Descartes1699 Words   |  7 PagesIn his work Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, Renà © Descartes sets out to establish a set of indubitable truths for the sciences. He begins by discarding all of his beliefs, then works to rebuild his beliefs based on careful thought. Descartes clearly states this goal, saying in the First Meditation, â€Å"I will work my way up†¦ I will accomplish this by putting aside everything that admits of the least doubt† (I, 17). He is able to establish his own existence, but struggles to move beyondRead MoreProposed Seven Philosophers On The Existence Of God And Their Development Of These Ideas1413 Words   |  6 Pagesphilosophers are as follows: (1) Socrates, (2) Plato, (3) Aristotle, (4) Francis Bacon, (5) St. Augustine, (6) Thomas A quinas, and (7) Rene DesCartes. The specific three I want to focus on being; St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes. Lastly, I will proceed to relate their ideas on the existence of God and their development of these ideas. St. Augustine s epistemology is rationalization. In his argument for the existence of God, he is referring to varying degrees of perfection otherwiseRead MoreA Brief Biography of Rene Descartes1580 Words   |  6 Pagesworks of philosopher Rene Descartes, who had endorsed the mechanistic conception of the world and the human body by coining notions such as mind, substance, and the knowledge argument; although his notions were not always accepted, he managed to provide valid support. Born in France, Rene Descartes, dubbed The Father of Modern Philosophy was, in a way, a Renaissance man having contributed influence amongst subjects such science, mathematics, psychology, and philosophy. Descartes was the medium ofRead MoreAnalysis Of Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy Essay1758 Words   |  8 Pages The Role of God in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy In his work Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, Renà © Descartes sets out to establish a set of indubitable truths for the sciences. He begins by discarding all of his beliefs, then works to rebuild his beliefs based on careful thought. Descartes clearly states this goal, saying in the First Meditation, â€Å"I will work my way up†¦ I will accomplish this by putting aside everything that admits of the least doubt† (I, 17). HeRead MoreEssay on Descartes Failure4852 Words   |  20 PagesDescartes Failure In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes strives first and foremost to provide an infallibly justified foundation for the empirical sciences, and second to prove the existence of God. I will focus on the first and second meditations in my attempt to show that, in his skepticism of the sources of knowledge, he fails to follow the rules he has set out in the Discourse on Method. First I claim that Descartes fails to draw the distinction between pure sensation andRead MoreLanguage and the Destiny of Man12402 Words   |  50 PagesÅžtefan Afloroaei / Descartes and the â€Å"metaphysical dualism† Descartes and the â€Å"metaphysical dualism†: Excesses in interpreting a classic* Al.I. Cuza University of Iasi Abstract The article focuses on one of the most serious accusations brought against Descartes and modern philosophy, namely â€Å"the dualism of substance†. The accusers claim that the human body and soul were viewed as completely separate; consequently, their relationship as such and the united being of man become incomprehensible. As