Cartesian Method: Understanding Truth and Reality
The Cartesian Method: Seeking Truth
In his discourse on the method, Descartes describes the goal of his thought: “To learn to distinguish the true from the false, to see clearly in my actions, and to walk safely in this life.” The proposed objective is the achievement of philosophical truth using reason. The Cartesian system represents, on the one hand, a break with the past, and on the other, a system aimed at achieving clear and distinct ideas.
The Importance of Mathematics
There is only one kind of knowledge that maintains an immutable order: mathematics. In the idea of mathematics as a paradigm of rationality, several levels can be glimpsed:
- The empirical effort: Mathematizing reality identifies it with scientific rationality.
- The mathematical process provides a creative rational method that overcomes particular problems.
- Mathematics becomes the prototype of conceptual rationality.
The Cartesian Method: Discovery, Not Just Demonstration
The Cartesian method is not simply a method of exposition or demonstration, but a method for discovering new truths. The fundamental operations of the mind are two: intuition and deduction. These are the appropriate ways to obtain a clear and distinct understanding; they are not, strictly speaking, the method itself.
Rules of the Method
The rules of the method are summarized as follows:
- Evidence: Never admit anything as true without knowing with evidence that it is so; that is, to avoid precipitation and prevention.
- Analysis: Divide each of the difficulties under consideration into as many parts as possible.
- Synthesis: Conduct my thoughts in an orderly way, gradually ascending to knowledge of the more complex.
- Verification: Make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that I would be sure of omitting nothing.
The apparent simplicity of this method is disconcerting at first glance. However, there are some issues to be considered more slowly:
- The First Rule: The rule states that I must accept as true only what is absolutely evident.
- The Second and Third Rules: These indicate the procedure for reaching the truth.
- The Fourth Rule: This indicates the need to make frequent checks of the analysis and a full review of the synthetic process.
Methodical Doubt: Seeking Absolute Certainty
Looking for absolute certainty requires a process of doubt; it is necessary to doubt everything that can ever be doubted. The proposed doubt is:
- Universal: It applies universally to all that can be doubted.
- Methodical: It is practiced within a method.
- Theoretical: Doubt should not be extended to behavior.
It involves doubting sense data, all sciences, and even mathematical propositions.
“I Think, Therefore I Am” (Cogito Ergo Sum)
Descartes concludes that even if he doubts everything, at least it is true that he doubts; that is, he thinks. And if he thinks, he exists as a thinking being. This “I think, therefore I am” in Cartesian thought has a dual function:
- It represents the model of true propositions.
- It prepares the radical distinction between soul and body.
From “cogito ergo sum,” Descartes indicates the steps of his investigation. The criterion of truth is characterized by rational evidence: clarity and distinction, whose obstacles are precipitation and prevention.
Dualism: Body and Soul
Descartes’ theory leads to conceiving man as a dual reality, composed of two different substances: the thinking mind (res cogitans) and the physical body (res extensa). The Cartesian conception of man includes several important aspects:
- Firstly, this union presupposes a real distinction between mind and body.
- Secondly, characters in the body must be recognized, rejecting the spiritual substance.
In the soul, there are actions and passions. Actions depend on the will, while passions are involuntary. The two core passions are sadness and happiness. The soul must not be dominated by passions but control them, guided by experience and reason (prudence).
Corporeal substance has a single central characteristic: extension. Matter may be conceived without some of its qualities, but not without extension. The Cartesian reduction of embodiment to extension is the basis of the strict mechanism that dominates Cartesian physics. Descartes used a strictly deductive method to understand the physical world, based on the idea of God and certain innate ideas in the human mind. Physics is a long series of ordered chains deduced that start from the root causes and lead to demonstrate the effects.