Philosophy --- Descartres help????

Question:Ok i have this essay question for my phil 1301 class and im confused about Descartes??

One day a clear and distince voice echoes through earth and says surprise you have all been living in a world that has been given space, time , and causality to make things easier for your mind. For the first time ever I will let you out into the real world, a world without space, time or causality or you can stay here. You have to choose now. What decision would each philosopher make (descartes) and why. Based on their theories would the be surprised?

I have to talk about Descartes methological doubt, "i think therefore i am, clear and distinct ideas, and God.

any help would be appreciated!! im confused??? : (

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Ok i have this essay question for my phil 1301 class and im confused about Descartes??

One day a clear and distince voice echoes through earth and says surprise you have all been living in a world that has been given space, time , and causality to make things easier for your mind. For the first time ever I will let you out into the real world, a world without space, time or causality or you can stay here. You have to choose now. What decision would each philosopher make (descartes) and why. Based on their theories would the be surprised?

I have to talk about Descartes methological doubt, "i think therefore i am, clear and distinct ideas, and God.

any help would be appreciated!! im confused??? : (

Well, Descartes would have been crazy by that posibility. But is a great experiment. First, you have to think in space and time. Are they subject to normal thinking? I mean you think of them as you think about pencils and cakes.... If you begin to ask in this you are going to arrive to some cartesian point. Is time and space outside of me or inside of me, it is the way trough I understand and feel the world, or just the media in which I live.

Descartes would doubt about the world seen trough space and time, because maybe there you can′t find a fundamental knowledge. Maybe in the other one, he would have find that the doubt is reigning there, but the thinking still goes. But it arises another question, and here is the big one: If you regard that time and space are inside of me, well a word without them is also without the self; if you regard that time and space are outside of me, well you have to ask, when there is no past, no present, no future, (time) can thoughts exist?

Heres the essaay I wrote,
Rene Descartes was one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the philosophy. Born in 1596, he lived to become a great mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. In fact, he became one of the central intellectual figures of the sixteen hundreds. He is believed by some to be the father of modern philosophy, although he was hampered by living in a time when other prominent scientists, such as Galileo, were persecuted for their discoveries and beliefs. Although this probably had an impact on his desire to publish controversial material, he went on to devise works such as the Meditations on First Philosophy and the Principles of Philosophy Aside from these accomplishments, his most important and lasting mathematical work was the invention of analytic geometry. It seems that the underlying point of Descartesa??s philosophy is to specify exactly what it is that we are sure we know.

Understanding Descartes?philosophy begins with understanding his method of doubt. Think about it like this. Almost everything you believe to be true comes from the senses or through the senses. However, the senses are sometimes deceptive. Since the senses are not completely trustworthy, it is irrational to place complete trust in them. However it is no small leap of faith to presume that everything our senses tells us is false. In fact, it seems almost preposterous to say such a thing. But as Descartes points out, we have dreams regularly and in these dreams everything we experience is a figment of our imagination, or at least not real in the physical sense. So, at least according to Descartes, it is reasonable to doubt everything our senses tell us, for the time being. Now, using similar logic, we can say that everything we have learned from physics, astronomy, medicine, and other such fields are all doubtful. Descartes even believed we could say that such simple, logical statements as 2+3 = 5 or a square has 4 sides could be conceived to be false....

"I think therefore I am" really talking about free will. So say God lets us out into a world w/o space, time or causality, according to Descartes, how would people behave?
is what you need to talk about.. This can be really interesting! You also need to look into - which I can't remember now - how Descartes thinks people are like in general: good deep down inside? manipulators? So then you tie it w/free will. In other words, how would people behave w/o spa., time and causality IF they are good at heart OR as manipulators?