Empiricism vs. Rationalism: Descartes’ Philosophy
Empiricism and Rationalism
Empiricism and rationalism: Descartes initiated modern philosophy and a new style of thought based on the subject called rationalism. Mathematics is the science necessary to know. Empiricism is another branch of modern philosophy. The two share the same goal for the origin and justification of knowledge. They diverge on the solutions, the answers to questions about this.
Rationalism
Rationalism is a philosophical system that regards reason as a means of achieving authentic knowledge. It is characterized by:
- Confidence in the human capacity to know reality
- Defense of reason separate from faith, religion, and tradition
- Consciousness-subjective thought as a principle of reality
- Affirming the existence of innate ideas
- Mathematics as a model of knowledge
- Assessment of capacity and rational rejection of the senses
- Emphasis on the idea of substance (what does not need anything except itself to exist)
Descartes’ Theory of Knowledge
Descartes’ theory of knowledge, or epistemology, is of great importance. He wondered how the essence of beings, as their conscience, allows us to have knowledge. His most important works are: Discourse on the Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, Principles of Philosophy, etc.
Descartes speaks of reason understood as a new criterion of truth. If a criterion of truth lies in mathematics with those who utilize the rational method, as in her sensitive perception, it is questionable and leads to errors.
He used a method called the Cartesian method. Science is a method that allows for the security of knowledge, and philosophy lacks it. Descartes intends to apply the method to the philosophy of geometry. He sets four basic rules:
- Evidence: Every evident proposition is a true proposition. An evident proposition is clear and distinct. Clear and obvious and direct means different means can be distinguished from the rest and not confused with others. We must avoid precipitation and prejudice.
- Analysis: Consists of dividing propositions into as many parts as possible, into their simplest elements, as these can more easily be known and from them derive more complex knowledge.
- Synthesis: From the simplest of these, the mind gets knowledge of the most complex.
- Enumeration: Consists of reviewing the above rules, i.e., whether the analysis is complete and the synthesis is correct.
The Methodological Doubt
Descartes wants to apply the method to areas other than mathematics. He says we must do two things: reject everything that we can have the slightest doubt about and consider it as false, and once you put everything in doubt, see if there is something which we cannot hesitate. He has the following reasoning:
- Uncertainty of sensory data: It is possible to doubt the senses because they often deceive us. He does not say that we doubt the physical bodies, but we doubt that we have sensitive knowledge of them.
- The sleep-wake confusion: We cannot clearly distinguish whether we are awake or in a dream. He doubts the existence of physical bodies.
- Reasoning errors: Descartes doubted the reasoning traditionally considered as true.
- Evil genius hypothesis: Suppose that the existence of an evil genius carried considered obvious and clear that things are not.
- “I think, therefore I exist”: The action of thinking involves the existence of a being that believes. Cogito ergo sum.
- Evidence as a criterion of truth: The Cogito is the first unquestionable truth because intuition is obvious, clear, and distinct.
Characteristics of the Method
Cartesian doubt is a doubt that serves to remove any doubt to achieve absolute truth. It applies to all knowledge of which may reasonably be doubted. It does not apply in the fields of faith and morality. It devalued the truth of all knowledge and not from those with new substitutes.