ople are born with no innate knowledge, and that everything that happens in the mind is a result of our perceptions.Descartes begins his theory of knowledge by assuming that nothing exists. He trusts nothing, not what he has seen or heard, not anything that he has thought. After careful deliberation, he comes to the foundation of his proof: I think, therefore, I am. What he means by this is that he knows that he exists because he thinks. This of course cannot be disproved, because to do so, would require thinking. Descartes believed that in order to obtain knowledge, there must be some rational method for obtaining it, and that the use of senses, or any personal experience was not a reliable source. In his third meditation he says, I know that even bodies are notperceived by the senses, or by the faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone (Descartes 69). He believed that this was the same for every human, that we all have innate ideas in our soul. This definitely follows the definition of a rationalist. In order to discover these ideas in our soul, we must go about a method of reasoning, which he referred to as methodological doubt. This method resembles the axiomatic geometric system, which probably so because of his expertise and interest in mathematics. Axioms are self-evident principals that are so clear that they are accepted as true, and part of everyones knowledge. He believed that knowledge of external things was a result of only the mind, and not the senses. Descartes also said that the universe was mathematically logical, and that anything can be arrived at by reasoning. In fact, he goes on in his writings and uses this method to prove God, the human senses, and the world, all through his reason. Descartes believed that no question was too difficult to discover by his means.Hume later contradicted the theory of Descartes by ignoring his method of thinking, and claiming that people learn through perceptio...
