Rocking the foundations of cartesian knowledge: critical notice of Janet Broughton, descartes's method of doubt

Journal ArticleJanet Broughton's Descartes's Method of Doubt†1 is a systematic study of the role of doubt in Descartes's epistemology. The book has two parts. Part 1 focuses on the development of doubt in the First Meditation, exploring such topics as the motivation behind methodic doubt; the targeted audience; the method's game-like character (on her view); its relations to ancient skepticism, its reasonableness; the method's presuppositions relative to commonsense belief; Michael Williams's recent criticisms of Descartes; and more. Part 2 focuses on how doubt figures in the constructive epistemology of the Meditations-on how Descartes employs doubt as a tool for founding knowledge

Descartes on unknown faculties and our knowledge of the external world

Journal ArticleDescartes introduces his skeptical arguments, in the First Meditation, in an order of increasing strength. First, the narrator-meditator notices that judgments concerning the nature of small and distant objects are unreliable; later, that even sensory judgments about large and close objects are in doubt-this after considering an argument related to madness and another related to dreaming; finally, that no judgments resist doubt-the renowned Deceiver Hypothesis is introduced, a skeptical device intended to undermine not only the judgment that an external, corporeal world exists, but even the most certain judgments in mathematics.1 For each of these skeptical problems (with the exception of the madness worry), Descartes provides an argument in the later (epis-temologically constructive) Meditations that is its complement. In this paper, I focus on the complementary pair that concerns the problem of the existence of the external, corporeal world

Descartes' epistemology

Journal ArticleRené Descartes (1596-1650) is widely regarded as the father of modern Philosophy;. His noteworthy contributions extend to mathematics and physics. This entry focuses on his philosophical contributions in the theory of knowledge. Specifically, the focus is on the epistemological project of Descartes' famous work, Meditations on First Philosophy;

Unmasking Descartes's case for the bete machine doctrine

Journal ArticleAmong the more notorious of Cartesian doctrines is the bete machine doctrine -- the view that brute animals lack not only reason, but any form of consciousness (having no mind or soul). Recent English commentaries have served to obscure, rather than to clarify, the historical Descartes's views, Standard interpretations have it that insofar as Descartes intends to establish the bete machine doctrine his arguments are palpably flawed. One camp of interpreters thus disputes that he even holds the doctrine. As I shall attempt to show, not only does Descartes affirm the doctrine, his supporting arguments are not palpably flawed -- even if they ultimately come up short. It will indeed emerge that, in making his case, Descartes employs interesting argumentative strategies that have not been duly appreciated

Diabetes, pulse pressure and cardiovascular mortality: the Hoorn Study

Objective: Type 2 diabetic patients have an increased arterial stiffness and a very high risk of cardiovascular death. The present study investigated the relationship between pulse pressure, an indicator of vascular stiffness, and risk of cardiovascular mortality among type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. Second, we determined the relationship between pulse pressure and its main determinant (i.e. age), and the influence of diabetes and mean arterial pressure on this relationship. Design and methods: We studied a cohort of 2484 individuals including 208 type 2 diabetic patients. Mean age and median follow-up for non-diabetic and diabetic individuals, respectively, were 61 and 66 years, and 8.8 and 8.6 years. One-hundred and sixteen non-diabetic and 34 diabetic individuals died of cardiovascular causes. Relative risks of cardiovascular mortality were estimated by Cox proportional hazards regression adjusted for age, gender and mean arterial pressure. Results: Pulse pressure was associated with cardiovascular mortality among the diabetic, but not among the non-diabetic individuals [adjusted relative risk (95% confidence interval) per 10 mmHg increase, 1.27 (1.00-1.61) and 0.98 (0.85-1.13), P interaction = 0.07]. Further adjustment for other risk factors gave similar results. The association, at baseline, between age and pulse pressure was dependent on the presence of diabetes (P interaction = 0.03) and on the mean arterial pressure (P interaction < 0.001) (i.e. there was a stronger association when diabetes was present and when mean arterial pressure was higher). Conclusions: We conclude that, in type 2 diabetes, pulse pressure is positively associated with cardiovascular mortality. The association between age and pulse pressure is influenced by the presence of type 2 diabetes and by the height of the mean arterial pressure. These findings support the concept of accelerated vascular aging in type 2 diabetes. © 2002 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

A Genetic Animal Model of Alcoholism for Screening Medications to Treat Addiction

The purpose of this review is to present up-to-date pharmacological, genetic, and behavioral findings from the alcohol-preferring P rat and summarize similar past work. Behaviorally, the focus will be on how the P rat meets criteria put forth for a valid animal model of alcoholism with a highlight on its use as an animal model of polysubstance abuse, including alcohol, nicotine, and psychostimulants. Pharmacologically and genetically, the focus will be on the neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems that have received the most attention: cholinergic, dopaminergic, GABAergic, glutamatergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, corticotrophin releasing hormone, opioid, and neuropeptide Y. Herein, we sought to place the P rat's behavioral and neurochemical phenotypes, and to some extent its genotype, in the context of the clinical literature. After reviewing the findings thus far, this chapter discusses future directions for expanding the use of this genetic animal model of alcoholism to identify molecular targets for treating drug addiction in general