>On Aug 23, 4:36 pm, John Larkin
>highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

>> On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:01:25 -0700 (PDT), Immortalist
>>
>> yahoo.com> wrote:
>>

>>>Descartes attempts to create a foundationalist philosophy based on a
>>>single, undeniable truth which he knows to be "fixed and assured". He
>>>takes "I think, therefore I am" "as the first principle of the
>>>philosophy I was seeking", believing that this is the only truth which
>>>is necessary to found a philosophy. His logical structure , however,
>>>relies on a second postulate. He claims that "the capacity to judge
>>>correctly and to distinguish the true from the false is naturally
>>>equal in all men". This postulate is more fundamental to his logical
>>>structure than the cogito because without it, he cannot escape the
>>>skepticism of his foundationalist structure.

>>
>> That's just silly. Some people have no talent for thinking, and a lot
>> of people who potentially have talent haven't practised enough to get
>> any good at it.
>>
>> Learning to think is like learning most other things: have some good
>> instructors; do it a lot; get good feedback.
>>
>> Descartes obviously didn't.
>>
>> John

>
>But weren't you attempting to create a foundationalist philosophy
>based on a single, undeniable truth, the giveness of sense data which
>you somehow believe is "fixed and assured"?

>But if that were all
>there was to this truth, there would be just the seemingness of sense
>experience. In order to say anything else about it or interpret the
>seemingness of sense wouldn't you need the capacity to judge correctly
>and to distinguish the true from the false? These arguments are
>separate from the sense data given.