Merve Yesilkaya PSY – 603M Prof. Gary Kose Short Essay October 3, 2016 Discuss Descartes account of innate ideas. Do you agree? How do we come to understand these concepts? Descartes was known as rationalist. When he was questioning about his surroundings, he figured that it was best to doubt everything before we get any answers. His way of rational method was to start by doubting everything, then to go by finding small units of analyses, and while you build up on those units, work until you get to the surface. According to Descartes, some of the ideas we have when awake might come to us while we are asleep without being true. Thus, he started thinking that whatever entered to his mind was what he couldn't trust. However, as Descartes continued to doubt, he realized that one thing was certain for sure, which was his conscious mind. He came to understand this idea by realizing that the use of his thinking while he doubted everything. Therefore, he concluded; his ability to think shows that he exists, and the thinking mind was what he could trust. As Descartes continued to doubt, he also concluded that there are certain ideas that come with the mind, which he called as “innate” ideas. Descartes viewed these ideas as real, but hard to represent by a single sensory experience. According to him, the innate ideas however could be suggested or alluded to by experience. The reason why he called these as innate ideas was because he concluded that they must derive from the nature of the thinking soul itself. According to Descartes, the innate ideas were things like perfection, infinity, mathematical ideas and such. Descartes’ belief on innate ideas made him to think of God in a sense that thinking soul must be given to us. As he looked into perfection, the idea of perfection with his certainty of real mind suggested that there must be a real God who makes every aspect of perfection. As a result of his thinking and questioning, Descartes was sure of the existence of God and his conscious soul. He suggested that senses could be trusted because the mind can perceive it and the God that created the mind. I agree with Descartes’ thought on innate ideas because there is a certain knowledge we have, which is not through learning. I believe that some ideas we have were just given to us, which is to acknowledge the world and things around us. We come to understand these concepts of perfection, infinity and such by our ability to think. All of us have conscious mind with intellective functioning, which provides us an opportunity to process information rather than having only sensory experience. ...