Descartes’ Method and Philosophy: Reason, Doubt, and God
Descartes’ Method and Philosophy
According to Descartes, reason is the same in all individuals; therefore, the diversity of opinions depends on the manner of conducting reason, i.e., the method. He believes it is necessary to find a method that correctly directs reason to avoid mistakes. This method consists of four rules:
- To accept as true only the obvious (that which is presented clearly and distinctly).
- Analysis of the problems.
- Go from the simple to the complex.
- Check everything so you do not miss anything.
To avoid the vacuum of ideas, while proposing a provisional moral, the following ideas are true. This has a minimum of moral precepts to guide everyday behavior, maximum:
- Follow the customs and laws of the country where you are.
- Be resolute in your actions.
- Alter your own desires rather than the order of nature.
So, he decided to refine knowledge through systematic doubt, which is a method that questions everything to arrive at something obvious. First, applied to the senses, he discovers that they lead to deception, as senses sometimes deceive us. After methodical doubt, he applies it to the imagination and concludes that the imagination also leads to the obvious, because sometimes dreams can be confused with reality. Finally, applying it to reason, Descartes assumes the existence of an evil genius that changes mathematical truths; therefore, reason may also lead to error. But he realizes that he must be some doubt and concludes that “Cogito Ergo Sum.” This is the first principle of his philosophy. With this statement, one can doubt everything around them, but not thinking. Therefore, the soul, which is responsible for thought, is more than the body. The question is a rational knowledge: one cannot conclude that there is no thought. It does not prove that the soul produces the thought, making a previous philosophy. This idea is clear and distinct, it is evident. Observe that in his mind, the idea of perfection exists, but nothing is perfect, so this idea must have been made by someone perfect: God (their existence is the second evidence). The proof of the existence of God comes from innate ideas, from the scholastic philosophy which seeks to deny.
After noting that the subject changes, but all that remains is the extension, which is the third truth of his philosophy. Mathematics is the only science that does not lead to error.
For Descartes, substance is what exists independently of others; therefore, there is only one substance, God, whom he calls Infinite Res. After that, there are two other substances, which are independent in the world but depend on God: Res Cogitans (thought) and Res Extensa (extension). Descartes argues that human beings are beings composed of body and soul; the soul directs the body and gives it will and freedom. These substances come together to develop.
Descartes divided reality into infinite Cartesian theory finita. According to him, true ideas are those that possess such qualities of clarity and distinction and are assumed to be clear and distinct because they have established the existence of God. Descartes used doubt as a requirement to find the “really.” “I think, therefore, I am” is the ultimate expression of rationalism and the first truth of Cartesian doubt. Being and thinking are identified. Descartes finds his starting point. This statement is entirely true since man, as he doubts his own existence, is thinking, and thus affirming their existence. Man is well aware of their thinking and intuition of their existence.
Methodological Doubt
He decided to reject as false any statement that could be doubted.
Doubt of Sensitive Knowledge
Sense data are not secure; we can doubt them. In fact, the senses often deceive us. Therefore, everything we perceive through the senses may not be real.
Doubt of Rational Knowledge
As not based on data from the senses, the truths of reason (logic and mathematics) are not met by doubt, which falls on sensitive knowledge. How could we defend ourselves from it? “I think, I exist” beyond doubt is our own existence.
Criterion of Truth
Descartes examines his first certainty to discover the distinctive characteristics that will serve as criteria for identifying other true statements. The statement “I think, I exist” is presented to consciousness with “clarity” and “distinction.” Therefore, accept as true ideas that are clear and distinct.
Existence of God
Despite having found an absolute certainty (“I think, I am”), and from it a criterion of truth, however, doubt still lingers on all other knowledge. We generate the hypothesis of the evil genius. The proof of the existence of God dispels doubts about rational knowledge, as God is its guarantor. His existence is shown as the external cause of the existence in the consciousness of the idea of perfection that cannot come from me, as I doubt and am imperfect. And being perfect, God cannot be deceived or have made us to systematically confuse us. We make mistakes because we are not perfect, but we are not made for error.
Rational Knowledge Insurance
With God as collateral, logical and mathematical knowledge recovers its security, and the evil genius hypothesis is discarded.
Innate Ideas
Ideas are not derived from either experience or imagination; they are the only truly clear and distinct (the idea of God, for example).
Sensitive Knowledge
Refers to the adventitious ideas that are supposed to represent real things. We do not, because we are liable to them. God either, because he is not a deceiver. We conclude that the cause of our adventitious ideas is that external things actually exist. Anyway, we only know of them with clarity and distinction that they are extended substance.
Factitious Ideas
These are the ideas produced by one’s conscience by imagination (the idea of a minotaur, for example).
Adventitious Ideas
These are the ideas that come from outside, through the senses (the idea of blue, for example).
Substances
- Substance thinking (The Soul).
- Substance extensive (The body).
- Substance infinite (God).
Lighting Theory
To overcome the limitation of the human mind and achieve these immutable and eternal truths, man needs divine help, that is, to be enlightened by the divine light and thus be able to learn and grasp that which transcends our minds. The man seeking the Truth, illuminated by God, within themselves. Its starting point is the intimacy of consciousness, a process that leads man beyond himself. Through the levels of knowledge, one is gradually reaching the truth:
- Aversion to the sensible world.
- Discovery of ideas as eternal models (Introversion).
- Union with God as the ultimate foundation (Transcendence).
Only those men who strive and deploy their interior will be worthy to attain grace. Supernatural aid is granted by God to man.
Freedom
Was the state in which man lived before the original sin. Free will, which is able not to sin. The Man Behind the Fall has a choice between good and evil, moves away from freedom, and happiness is a choice of evil, the power to fall. Therefore, evil cannot be attributed to God.
Only those who choose to do good will be illuminated and come to the contemplation of truth, which is what will bring you true happiness. Thus, the search inside the human being for eternal truths is something that transcends the soul to God. Faith is not opposed to reason as something irrational, but it seeks to understand. “Faith guides and illuminates reason, and this in turn explains the contents of faith.” However, reason must follow faith; here again, philosophy is a servant.