René Descartes: A Revolutionary Thinker
René Descartes: The Father of Modern Philosophy
René Descartes was a French philosopher who is considered the father of modern philosophy. Educated in scholasticism, he initiated a new era in philosophy by applying a novel criterion of truth, replacing the previously dominant criterion of authority, and introducing a new method. His philosophy centers on three key aspects: the renewal of scholastic thought, the recovery of skeptical thought, the use of systematic doubt, and the application of mathematics to philosophy.
Descartes’ entire philosophical project revolves around the discovery of a new criterion of truth and the development of a new method.
The Search for a Criterion of Truth
Descartes’ objective was to find clear and indubitable first principles upon which to build philosophy. He employed methodological doubt as the means to achieve this. This involved eliminating all opinions and false beliefs to start anew from fundamental principles, allowing for the establishment of something firm and constant in the sciences. Applying this doubt did not necessitate proving everything false, but rather rejecting anything about which the slightest reason for doubt could be found. The steps in this process are:
- The senses can deceive us, therefore, they cannot be trusted. We can doubt that things are as we perceive them through the senses. However, this does not allow us to doubt that there are things we perceive.
- It is difficult to distinguish between waking and sleep. We can doubt the existence of things and the material world, but this does not permit us to doubt certain truths, such as those of mathematics.
- The hypothesis of an evil genius. It is not impossible that, instead of God, there exists an infinitely powerful and intelligent being whose sole purpose is to confuse and deceive us, even when we feel most certain. Therefore, we can doubt mathematical truths, God’s existence, and its accuracy.
At this stage, nothing is certain in human knowledge. We are faced with a feigned doubt that can only be applied to the realm of thought, knowledge, and meditation, never to the realm of action. In the field of work, hesitation is not permissible. In practical life, we must abide by three maxims of provisional morality:
- The first maxim is social conformity, which involves following the laws and customs of one’s country, adhering to the religion in which one has been raised, and following the most moderate and accepted opinions.
- In the second maxim, Descartes proposes being firm and decisive in our actions, even if the opinions guiding us are dubious.
- In the third maxim, Descartes summarizes the previous two: to direct and regulate actions as befits reason to achieve peace of mind and happiness.
Descartes justifies his skepticism as methodical and provisional, not absolute. While skeptics make doubt an end in itself, Descartes uses it as a means to find truth.
The First Truth: Cogito, Ergo Sum
This methodical doubt allows us to radically rid ourselves of all sorts of prejudices and accustom our minds to move away from the senses. Furthermore, we cannot have any doubt about what we find to be true.
Taken to the extreme of radical doubt, Descartes discovered the first truth that is absolutely certain: I doubt everything that exists, but I doubt only to the extent that I think, and if I think, it is because I exist: cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).
This first truth is not only the first certainty but also the prototype of all truth and absolute certainty.
Res Cogitans and the Existence of God
This raises the question, what am I? I am only a thinking thing: Res cogitans. Having established this truth, Descartes considers how we can know God. To answer this, he takes two steps:
- The existence of God from the innate idea of the perfect. I find within me the idea of God, that is, the idea of something infinite and perfect. Such an idea cannot originate from sense perception of external things. This idea is innate and must have been placed in me by something infinite and perfect, as I am limited and imperfect.
- Through the ontological argument of St. Anselm. According to Descartes, God is a creative substance. God created substances: thinking substances (the self or soul) and corporeal substances (the world, including the human body). All substances have attributes and accidents. God’s attributes are infinite: infinite goodness, eternity, omnipotence, etc. The attribute of the soul is thought. Its accidents are imagination, memory, doubt, desire, etc. The attribute of bodies is extension, and their accidents are shape and movement.