Decartes believe that it is possible to arrive at a knowledge of practical philosophy, that would be useful in life. We might be able to use these knowledges for a lot of other purposes.
In order to live carefree, you must maintain the principal for good health. It is the first good and fundation of all other goods of this life. Your mind and organs can't function properly without a good health. The key to good health according to Decartes is based on medical discovery. But Decartes believe that the study of medicine is so ranged that even the professionals today can't know it all. Certain people spend their entire life trying to figure out medicine, but end up dying of old age. That's why Decartes urge people to study science and pass the information down and continue the study with the next generation.
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Hey, I know that Descartes believes that the field of medicine is so vast that he doubts even those who are professionals in the field will ever truly know everything. However, I think that Descartes applies this thought to a lot of things. I mean, he says that compared to all the things he does not know he thinks he knows nothing. He wants people to work together not only so they can advance in scientific technology but because philosophers have a habit of never exceeding their teachers. Their knowledge is limited to the amount of knowledge that their teacher has. This just shows how much there is still left to learn. To me it seems that Descartes comes to the realization that he will never know everything, even though that was one of his main goals.
but wait if he said that no one can know all there is to know about medicine because life is short how would he be able to pass it down to other generations? if the answer is by writing. there is a paragraph on page 39 where he explains how people take information in, but do not really get the point. say this happens when he is trying to pass information to the next generation. people interpret things differently.
Walter, this is a great point but I think the reason that he wants information passed down is so that it can guide people's finding rather than for studying purposes. He still wishes everyone to find truths for themselves and to then pass it along. I think this is for comparison purposes. Once people find truth for themselves they are far more likely to understand the works of others before them.
Hey Walter, just because someone is dead does not mean that all of his knowledge dies along with him. You make a good point that people do interpret things differently but generally, I think the information would basically the same. It's just the way you interpret the knowledge that makes it different. However, this is one of the main problems that Descartes discusses. Is there any way to guarantee that when teaching someone they are interpreting the knowledge the way you want them to? Although, if everyone learned the same way and therefore the knowledge the gained was the same, would they be able to learn more? Isn't it through people's different ways of thinking that more knowledge is gained because people are constantly questioning?
Decartes wanted everyone to try their best to contribute to the finding but he also wanted those people to pass their discovery down by communicating to the public. (p. 35)
I agree with Decartes' idea about passing their thought and findings down by communicating with the public. This is how we continue our finding for millions of years. So far it's working really well. For example, we have huge improvement in the world of technology because people communicate with others about their findings and then others improve it and make the object better. Without the improvement, we will still be watching black and white T.V.
I agree with Julia, the info that someone who's dead can be generally the same. Also there will be many people doing the same study, so by comparing their thoughts and discoveries, you will likely be on the right track!
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