Representação e conhecimento nas meditações de Descartes

Abstract

This dissertation presents the foundations of representation and knowledge on René Descartes Meditations in order to discuss his project on the reconstruction of the whole science of his time through a critical review of it s underpinnings. We approach the theme through the analysis of the six meditations, beginning with doubts concerning opinions and sensitive knowledge in general, as well as doubts about the subject's own knowledge in particular. Analysis is made of the means that lead to the first certainty, the one which concerns the thinking subject, which is aware of its own existence and whose synthesis is manifested in the expression: "I am, I exist", which serves as a background for the other findings, such as the existence of God and its truth, the problem of representation, or the representative character of ideas, of their objective reality, and the principles of causation and correspondence. We also highlight the importance of statements about the ability to analyze, which implies the possibility of error when a statement is set out without proper verification of it s clarity and evidence, for the acts of thinking, wanting, desiring, are always true, but the judgments based on them may be misleading, if their foundation does not satisfy the criteria of clarity and evidence.