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CHAIR'S STATEMENT FACULTY GRADUATE STUDENTS COLLOQUIUM CALENDAR UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM GRADUATE PROGRAM GRADUATE PLACEMENT MASTER SCHEDULE UNDERGRADUATE BULLETIN GRADUATE BULLETIN ACADEMIC CALENDARS USC LIBRARIES CAS COMPUTING & IT USC COMPUTER SERVICES ABOUT COLUMBIA SC RESTRICTED ACCESS: Faculty | Graduate Students Search USC   THIS SITE		COLLOQUIA & CONFERENCES DESCARTES ON THE LIMITS OF REASON   Matthew Kisner Department of Philosophy University of South Carolina   October 21, 2005 Friday, 4:00pm-6:00pm Nursing, Room 127   It is common to regard Descartes as exceedingly optimistic about the powers of reason. This interpretive line culminates in the claim that Descartes conceives of reason as a kind of divine power, occupying a God's-eye perspective. This paper examines Descartes' view on the limits of reason. I show that Descartes conceives of human reason, in opposition to divine reason, as a part of the natural world, dependent upon, and thus limited by other things, namely bodies and the will. I address an urgent epistemic question which arises from this view: if we cannot know the world as God knows it, then how can we claim to possess absolutely certain knowledge? An answer to this question can be found in a controversial passage from the Second Replies. There Descartes argues that knowledge only requires justification from the perspective of human reason, thereby rejecting the God's-eye perspective.
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