Malebranche Paper
I received an “A” on my philosophy paper. It is posted here: Malebranche: Ideas & Sensory Error.
Are darkness, coldness, and redness real and positive? Isn’t darkness/coldness just the absence of light/heat? If so then what is the cause of our idea of cold? Why do we think things possess the quality of “cold” when no such quality exists? And furthermore, if God is good then why does he allow us to make errors when we judge things that appear to us? Of course these questions depend on your understanding of how ideas of objects connect to things in the real world, how we make mistakes in our judgments about things, and what God’s goodness has to do with it all. A lot of ink has been spilled by philosophers on this topic and my paper is just some more ink (actually laserjet toner). This essay analyzes the views of two philosophers: René Descartes (the father of modern philosophy) and Nicolas Malebranche (a crazy philosopher who liked Descartes and tried to save his theory from criticisms).
My TA who graded it wrote:
“Good damn work. Your writing is occasionally tortuous or incomprehensible. Your Descartes sections are great but the Malebranche stuff – very insightful.”
This is the essay topic I chose to write about:
How, according to Malebranche, are we able to think about the physical world? In answering this question, outline Malebranche’s theory of ideas paying particular attention to what, on his view, is the immediate object of a thought. How does he think that we go wrong in making judgments about the physical world? Evaluate Malebranche’s solution to the problems Cartesians faced in accounting for sensory error. (1500 word maximum, 35% of grade)
Barron's {Qualified} Hyperbole 