Post #166 "Knowledge"

What are the possibilities that through the enthronement of Reason as the God of Creation, technology is moving the world and possibly beyond the world to total destruction, to a universe more and more under the control of Reason and less in touch with that 'something other,' that 'something beyond', that something outside the systems of Tradition/Faith and Reason/Intellect? And are there possibly other forms of knowledge, other ways of knowing or other levels of awareness besides tradition, the senses, and reason?

What of the senses? Returning to Rene Descartes in his writing Meditations on the First Philosophy, he says that , "The senses can't be trusted either. The senses deceive. I might be dreaming or drugged, or deceived by a malicious deity. If we are being serious about this project, then the sights and smells and tastes, no matter how self-evident must be doubted. Strictly speaking, I can't even be sure of the reality of my own body." Russel Shorto in his writing Decartes' Bones," P19, says that what is at issue here is the nature of the relationship between Faith and Reason and also the relationship between the spiritual and the physical worlds. In each, according to tradition and law, the former has precedent over the latter. In our present world, the situation seems reversed. The latter has precedent over the former. Then again, the battle line between Faith and Reason have never been clear-cut.

Decartes himself was not the cool rationalist that history has portrayed him as. He held sincerely to his faith, and while he was undeniably a modern philosopher, he also had one foot in the Middle Ages. In the manner of medieval philosophers, he incorporated 'proofs' of the existence of God into his philosophy. It was necessary for him, to prove both the existence and the innate'goodness' of God, for, given the corrosiveness of Cartesian doubt, these were the only assurances we have that the natural world really exists. It seems then, that his work was grounded in theology. This then seems to assume that Creation and science, plus Decartes' own philosophy, depend on God