René Descartes
Greg R Spencer
Greg Spencer
René Descartes born in France in 1596 c.e. his mother died when he was one year old and his
father was a famous lawyer who was often away from home. At nine years of age he was sent to college
and he studied Greek, Latin, history, liberal arts, science, mathematics and philosophy. On November 10th
1618, at the age of twenty two, he was alone for the whole day and through his thoughts he stumbled
upon a new science; Epistemology which is the study of thought. The next night he had three dreams, in
one of his dreams he heard a clap of thunder, he took this to be the “spirit of truth descending to take
possession” of him. He believed he was divinely encouraged to establish a universal method of reasoning.
Descartes spent most of his time alone and he moved frequently. However he ended up in queen Christina
of Sweden’s court where he died of pneumonia in 1650 c.e. at the age of fifty four. (Archetypes of
Wisdom, Douglas J. Soccio, pg#248-249).
The historical time period in which René Descartes lived explains the reason for the way he
thought. His quest for certainty was sparked at a time when science and religion were heatedly in
contention with each other. During this early seventeenth century a scientific revolution was in full sway.
Great thinkers such as Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei had a new view of the
world; a view which contradicted the biblical accounts of our place in the center of the universe. The
Church forbade these theories to be stated as fact. And the tension grew to a point in 1633 where Galileo
was arrested by the Church for claiming the sun was the center of the galaxy (stating it as fact rather than
fiction) and was told to back down or he would be excommunicated from the Church. Upon hearing the
news of this, Descartes suppressed his own writing called The World in which he also tried to establish
the sun as the center. Descartes was a religious man and he tried not to upset the Church; this is evident in
some of his writings called The Principles where he has modified his cosmology to say that the earth is
static.(sparknotes.com)
In his work titled Meditation I, he said “Several years have now elapsed since I first became
aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what
I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the
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necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of
commencing anew the work of building from the foundation...” (René Descartes , Meditation I, from
Wikipedia). This brings us to his method of doubt. Descartes believed that there is a mathematical way to
reach truth. He wanted to reexamine everything. And he wanted to do that by employing the method of
doubt. Other names are also known as hyperbolic doubt, the tendency to doubt, extreme doubt and
exaggerated doubt. The method was broken into a few steps. First to accept only information you know
for yourself to be true, then to break down the truths into smaller units, then solving the simple problems
first and lastly making complete lists of further problems.
This method of doubt is not to be confused with psychological doubt, which is when a person
seriously doubts something because they have some sort of suspicion or intuition that something should
be doubted. The idea behind methodic doubt is: can we think of any logically possible idea that would
bring a belief under doubt? If we can, then that belief should be set aside. Not so much that the belief is
false. It’s just that it could be false and so can’t be raised to the “level of certainty.” On the other hand, if
there is a belief that can stand up to all attempts to doubt it, then that belief is beyond doubt, and then rises
to the” level of certainty.”
His criteria for what makes something true is simply put, “the things which we conceive very
clearly and distinctly are all true.” He defined clear as “that which is present and apparent to an attentive
mind” and distinct as “that which is so precise and different from all other objects that it contains within
itself nothing but what is clear.” (archetypes of wisdom by Douglas j. Soccio p#254).
Descartes was one of the philosophers who believed knowledge could be obtained based on truth
and he believed that knowledge could be categorized into two types: A Priori and A Posteriori. A Priori is
a Latin term that means “from what comes before” and A Posteriori means “from what comes later” A
Priori is used to describe knowledge that can be obtained through reason, knowledge we are born with;
and A Posteriori knowledge we gain through experience. For example the statement “all widows have lost
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a husband” is an A Priori knowledge it’s not based on your experience of going out and meeting all
widows and finding out if they lost a husband, however the statement “many widows are unhappy” would
depend on experience you would actually have to go and find out if the statement is true to verify it for
yourself. This is a rationalistic approach to knowledge. Most rationalists believe that by reason alone (no
experiments or observation) truth can be obtained.
Descartes was trying to use the method of doubt but he kept reverting back to his traditional
beliefs so he gave himself over entirely to doubting even these long held beliefs. He then introduces to us
his idea of an evil genius who may have tried all this time to deceive him into believing his senses are
real; so he searches for a truth in which “the deceiver” could not trick him to believe something that is
not. He even considers that it is possible that he could be deceived about A Priori ideas such as colors
exist, triangles have three sides and even that 7 + 5 = 12 when it does in reality. And if all these things
don’t exist as the way he thinks they exist, is it possible that Descartes doesn’t exist? And that’s when he
introduces his famous statement “Cogito, ergo sum.” Which is Latin for, “I think therefore I am.”
This is very significant because, in thinking “I don’t exist” you are thinking that you don’t exist,
and you must affirm that you are a thinking thing and something that thinks is something. Every time you
affirm that you exist it becomes true because you’re a thinking thing.
Thinking is very important to all philosophers, especially Descartes. We can see that he concludes
that an idea is true if you can clearly and distinctly conceive it to be true. Also those ideas should be
examined for one’s self. He regarded the mental as greater than the physical because “the evil genius”
could deceive him about the physical world but in his thoughts he is able to come up with indubitable
ideas, such as the “Cogito”
However the “Cogito” creates a problem for Descartes, now how can he connect himself with the
external world, this is a form of epistemological solipsism. The way Descartes brings us back to the
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external world is linked through the “Cogito” and goes something like this: I think therefore I am, these
thoughts couldn’t exist on their own, someone had to create them and put them in my mind, that someone
has to be God, God is good by nature and can’t be deceiving me, therefore the external world exists.
Descartes believed in what is called Cartesian dualism, which refers to the mysterious union of
mind and body; Separate but united entities. The problem that arises here is: what is the relationship of
the mind to the body? Descartes answers this by saying that the union has something to do with the pineal
gland.
Descartes caused the epistemological turn in philosophy. Instead of focusing on the external
world, he turned inward and analyzed thought. He coined one of the most quoted phrases in history, “I
think therefore I am.” I feel as though I can relate to Descartes in the way that I too want to reconcile
science and religion. And he was, in my view, on the right track and even though each of the philosophers
all get stuck in one way or another. One thing can be said about René Descartes, and that is he laid a great
foundation for thought.
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Bibliography
Soccio, Douglas J. "The Rationalist." Archetypes of Wisdom: an Introduction to Philosophy. 7th ed.
Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2010. 248+. Print.
"Methodic Doubt." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 02 Aug. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodic_doubt>.
"SparkNotes: Principles of Philosophy: Context." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web.
02 Aug. 2010. <http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/principles/context.html>.