René Descartes: Life, Philosophy, and Impact
René Descartes: Life and Works
Life: Born in the sixteenth century, in La Haye, France. He studied the law and then joined the army.
Key Works and Publications
Geneva: He publicly released “Discourse on Method,” published after different essays: “Dioptrics,” “Meteors,” and “Geometry.” He also published “Meditations on First Philosophy,” his most systematic work. Later, he published “Principles of Philosophy,” “Passions of the Soul,” and “Rules for the Direction of the Spirit.”
Philosophical Current: Rationalism
Descartes’ current of thought is rationalism. Rationalism opposes empiricism. Rationalism holds that our valid and true knowledge about reality comes from reason and understanding. The characteristics of rationalism are connected with the ideal of modern science: our knowledge about reality can be constructed deductively from certain self-evident ideas and principles. The first evident principles and ideas are innate to understanding.
Roots of His Thought
Descartes believed wisdom is the most widespread of talents. He proposed an appropriate method to develop and discover new aspects of knowledge because knowledge is not merely repeated, but innovated. The educational environment of his time prevented him from reaching original innovations, which helped him to develop the mathematical method that concluded the modern age. He sought a new criterion of truth to replace the authority of the church and Aristotelian scholasticism, which could replace syllogistic reasoning by having general, analytic principles. Primacy is given to the simple over the complex. Only what is clear and distinct can give us certainty. It appears as something that ultimately matches directly and shows itself as identical. A logical deduction leads to establishing an identity with itself, where it can be separated from other things. Clarity is always accompanied by distinction. An order must be established to move from the simple to the complex.
Descartes believed in seeking universal knowledge, valid for all branches of knowledge, both technical and practical. Because he had not come to this knowledge before, Descartes proposed the mathematical method, whose characteristics are intuition and deduction. Insight provides undoubted truths, which cannot be denied, and deduction is any conclusion derived from things known with certainty. The mathematical method proceeds by steps, and clear links presuppose intuition.
Impact of Cartesian Philosophy
The conviction that Cartesian autonomous reason is primarily determined by the rationalist character of all modern philosophy. Descartes conceived reason as leading to modern rationalism, characterized by understanding reason as a mathematical and human capacity, practically unlimited. Cartesian philosophy begins the specific theming of the problem of knowledge. The Cartesian approach, and the solution whereby the only point of departure for all knowledge is the self and its ideas of reason, give rise to idealism. However, this idealism differs from later idealism in that it is:
- Epistemological: because the cogito does not create the world, but only knows it.
- Subjective: because cogito is owned and internal to a subject; it is not independent but subjective.
The excessive movement in the Copernican Revolution that Kant gave to the theory of knowledge results in the process of formalizing science and trying a new method, which will institute a modern method of thinking.