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Back to Subjects - Philosophy

Decartes

Decartes 1. In the Discourse on the Method, Descartes laments that as a young man he was forced to conclude at the end of all his studies that “there was no doctrine [i.e., teaching or body of knowledge] in the world that was of the sort that I had previously been led to hope for.” In your essay, I would like you to discuss the nature of the body of knowledge he was looking for a s well as the place of the cogito (that is, the utterance “I think, therefore I am”) in it. You may discuss his criticism of the learning of the time, but do not spill much ink over it; the focus of your paper should be on the new science he is seeking, not the old. Rene Descartes is considered by many to be the father of modern philosophy. His new philosophy challenged the thoughts and ideas of the ancient philosophers such as Aristotle and Socrates. Due to the fact that he challenged their ideas and beliefs he subsequently challenged the ideas and beliefs of the people of his time. This got Descartes in hot water with many organizations and powerful people. Descartes, as a young man, spent a good deal of time traveling between colleges and with Maxamillian’s army in search of knowledge. After many years, he realized in fact that all that he had learned and been taught was not completely true. He decided that in order to find the truth and knowledge he would develop his own philosophy. The only way for him to develop this new philosophy was to refute all the knowledge that he had been taught up to that point unless it was true without a doubt. Descartes knew that the only way his new philosophy would be accepted was if it was unable to be refuted. He looked at the “house of philosophical knowledge” and realized that it was poorly formed. Descartes wanted to build a “house” that had a strong foundation. In order to build a strong foundation he needed to develop a principle that was always true. He decided to pretend that all he had previously learned is false and start all over by rebuilding his knowledge from the ground up. This is were he developed “the method.” The rules of the method were to reject everything that you believe to be true unless you know with absolute certainty it is true. The second rule dealt with solving complicated problems. He discovered that you needed breakdown complicated problems into smaller problems to solve them. Thirdly, Descartes figured that the best way to learn about big things that were hard to analyze would be to look for similar, smaller things and attempt to understand them. By this I mean if you want to learn about larger things start small and work your way up. The final rule in Descartes method was to go over calculations again and again to be very thorough. The first rule was a very radical rule. It knocked down the “old house of philosophy in order to build a new one over from the foundation. Descartes was in search of the truth. He realized that the principle of his new philosophy could in no way be doubted. Instead of going through all of ideas and theorems to find an indubitable piece of knowledge he boiled everything down to three things. Descartes decided that if these bases could ever be a source of error then we should not look any farther into what these three things lead up to because their base was a possible source of error. The first base was the senses. Descartes knew that at times our senses could fool us. At times we see things or hear things that in fact are not present. The second was calculation and reasoning. This too could be a source of error. His last base was existential judgment. This too he reasoned could in fact be doubted. At this point Descartes realized that he needed to doubt everything. He got to a point when he in fact doubted whether or not he existed. He thought maybe he was made to believe that he existed by a machine or some other force. As he was thinking, he reasoned that in fact he was thinking so he must exist. However he soon refuted that belief because the machine/force could be making him think he was thinking when in fact he wasn’t thinking at all. Then Descartes realized that in fact by doubting his existence he was thinking, because doubting is a form of thinking. Now even if he doubted the fact that he was doubting he would be doubting and in turn be thinking. Therefore, Descartes concluded that “I think, therefore I am.” This idea became the foundation of his new philosophy. He realized that this idea could not be doubted or refuted and is always true. The “old house of philosophy” was more or less bunches of information thrown together in any place so that it formed an incomplete pile of rubble. Descartes dreamed of forming a “new house of philosophy.” It would consist of blocks of knowledge placed in all the correct places built on a strong and indubitable foundation. His new idea of “I think, therefore I am” would serve as this strong indubitable foundation. It was necessary for this new foundation to be unquestionable because all the other ideas in his philosophy would stem back to this one. If it was questionable, then all the theorems and principles that stemmed back to this original foundation could be questioned. This would ruin Descartes plan to develop a new philosophy of truths. Descartes was looking for a new foundation for the sciences. Aristotle had three different models for the sciences. One was for the science of physics; one was for medicine, and one for morals. The common model was of three trees. The roots represented the principles of the particular science and the tree itself represented the ideas of the particular science. Aristotle believed that all principles and/or knowledge come from experiences. Descartes model of the sciences consisted of one huge tree with demonstrable knowledge. He was looking to boil all the sciences down to a first principle. Contrary to Aristotle’s belief, Descartes believed that these principles were not developed by experience. He thought that we were born with these talents, which were innate. The challenge in life is to realize these innate talents. In his model of one large tree the branches represented morals, medicine, and mechanics. The trunk of the tree represented physics, which he believed all science developed from. He believed that the roots were the metaphysics. Descartes achieved what he set out to do. He developed a new philosophy, which separated him from the other older philosophical ideas. By doubting all that he had previously learned he was able to seek the truth that avoided him. He developed the first Principle of Philosophy in “I think, therefore I am.” Overall his journey to develop a new philosophy was a success as evidenced by the fact that he is considered the father of modern philosophy. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1261