Understanding Cartesian Rationalism and the Search for Truth
The Search for Truth in Learning
The search for truth, which has always been the goal of learning, whether in science or philosophy, requires a criterion of certainty.
The Shift in Criteria
In the twelfth century, authority is no longer accepted as the criterion, and subjectivity becomes the only acceptable alternative. Descartes intends to “build on land that is entirely mine.” One must not doubt what is accepted as valid, and it must become part of a set of knowledge that constitutes the understanding of reality. This is the justification of the method: if I abide by myself, I know how to govern myself.
The Methodical Doubt
The question is not just a spontaneous state of mind; it should be a systematic activity, a search for evidence without hesitation. Thus, the first step of the method is called methodical doubt. In support of doubt, one argues against the infidelity of the senses, the suspicion of dreaming, and even the existence of an evil genius who deceives us. To start from something indubitable, one arrives at evidence that is not to be doubted.
Establishing Evidence
In this way, on one hand, there is something on which to constitute evidence, which is a way of thinking, an activity that is required. Secondly, there is a model of evidence that will be compared with successive convictions.
Progress in the Process
Progress continues in the process. The next step is to analyze and divide. There can be only one element because the pensamiento, the res cogitans, which is identified with my I, is the only existing reality. One can judge existing reality by the ideas in my mind, which is the only way forward.
Types of Ideas
Images can be differentiated between innate, adventitious, and artificial. The idea of God comes to me as an innate idea that the evidence shows me what it represents: the perfect Being. If I, being flawed, doubt even my idea of perfection, it could only generate the perfect Being if it were not existing in contradiction with its own perfection.
Adventitious Ideas
Adventitious ideas are those that are strange or that survive, unlike the natural ones.
The Existence of Being
Finally, if I find myself as a being contingent and cannot doubt my existence, then there must exist a Being that explains it.
Emerging Realities
In the division, there have already emerged the obvious res cogitans and infinite res, or God. Another third reality that appears in my thoughts presents itself with total clarity and distinction as res extensa. From your existing collateral, there is divine goodness. The evidence is not on objects but on the ideas or mental representations that I possess; that is my thoughts. And my thoughts cannot be doubted because “God cannot deceive us.”
Synthesis and Sequencing
The next step or precept of the method is synthesis or sequencing. The three realities: res cogitans, infinite res, and res extensa, appear in this order in the mind. However, if we consider the concept of substance that exists by itself and requires no other to survive, only God fulfills this condition. Therefore, the order will be: God, me, world. But if we follow the logical order, which advises following the simplest to the complex, we first explore the world, then thought, and finally God.
The Final Phase of the Method
The listing is the final phase of the method. It consists of checking to ensure that nothing is missed and that nothing is included more than once. In this first application, being only three elements, it seems too simple, but if you consider that after this phase begins the process again, and so on to weave a comprehensive network, both the organization and the list are essential.
Conclusion
It is true that the method may be used for any particular type of knowledge, but for Cartesian rationalism, it is inseparable from the method of knowledge of reality. Otherwise, reality could be manipulated by the method if this were before, and if the contrary is later, it is unnecessary for this purpose or may be suspected of opportunism. They were gestated in unison. It requires a method for thinking about reality, and reality, having a rational structure, lends itself to be articulated by the method. The latter is the central point of rationalism.