History of Ideas Assignment Analysis Report

Running head: HISTORY OF IDEAS
History of Ideas
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HISTORY OF IDEAS
The overall purpose of this short essay is to focus on the life and achievements of Rene
Descartes and his beliefs. Various beliefs of the philosopher and his philosophy have been very
important in this modern day world. In his Meditations of First Philosophy, Descartes has
discussed on the immortality of the soul and the existence of the God (Askaphilosopher.org,
2013). Various aspects of this philosophy and its implications on the minds of the people will be
discussed in this paper.
While discussing on the Meditations of First Philosophy, the overall philosophy and life
of Rene Descartes must be mentioned (Carriero: 19). In his views of philosophy, Descartes has
gone on to discuss about the importance about the existence of God. This book was first
published in the year 1641 in the Latin language. In this book, there are generally six parts of
meditations. At the very beginning of this paper, all the beliefs in the things have been
completely discarded that are uncertain in this world (Askaphilosopher.org, 2013). Various
meditations have been discussed in this paper and the the concept of doubt in the things has been
expressed.
The concepts of the imagination and intellect have also been discussed by Descartes
also. In the book, Descartes has made differences between the intellect and imagination in
various ways. Therefore, it is very much certain that these two concepts have some basic
differences. According to Descartes, imagination of the human mind is completely sensory and it
will deal with the concrete ideas (Askaphilosopher.org, 2013). On the other hand, intellection is
about knowledge and it has to deal with all sorts of the abstract ideas. In his book, Descartes has
stressed on the idea that it is intellect only i.e. needed to exist in this world. The concepts of
skepticism and dualism are also very crucial exponents of what Descartes had said. Therefore, it
will be very crucial to note the fact that the dualism occurs regarding the dual existence of the