Rene Descartes was born in 1596 and died in 1650. He was
born in Tours, France and educated at La Fle’che, a Jesuit college, where he
studied physics, Scholastic philosophy and mathematics. Descartes is
considered, rightfully so, as the father of modern philosophy. Descartes had a
strong desire to learn and was clearly a gifted student. Descartes was quoted
as saying that “philosophy teaches us to speak with an appearance of truth
about all things and causes us to be admired by the less learned…” Descartes
life was spent in a quest for certainty.
After leaving school, Descartes joined the army of Prince
Maurice of Nassau, which seems quite odd, and did not take any pay. During this
time he studied mathematics and wrote several papers including a treatise on
music. He left the service in 1619. Also in 1619, Descartes had three
consecutive mystical dreams much like Augustine before him. However these
dreams led not to salvation of his soul, but to the discovery of a new
scientific method.
Descartes was a devout Catholic and died in the faith. In
fact his faith had an impact on his philosophy. Descartes avoided theological
discussions and contented himself with problems which he believed could be
solved by reason alone.
In 1637 Descartes published his “Discourse on the Method of
Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking for Truth in the Sciences,”
(Discourse on the Method). This method worked out over several years was formulated
in 21 “Rules for the Direction of the Mind”. The Rules were written earlier but
published posthumously. In 1641 Descartes published his “Meditations on First
Philosophy” which was accompanied by six sets of objections submitted by
various theologians and philosophers and by Descartes answers to these
objections. “Principles of Philosophy” was published in 1644 and in 1649 and
treatise “The Passions of the Soul” was published.
The Cartesian method reflects Descartes passion for
certainty. His quest was for a universal and infallible method of reasoning.
This method is formulated in his 21 rules. Rule III is one of the most
important of the rules. It states that in the subjects that we investigate, our
inquiries should not be directed to what others have thought nor to our own
preconceptions, but only to what we can clearly know and with certainty deduce.
Descartes believed that there are only two mental operations by which we are
able to arrive at the knowledge of things. The two operations are through
intuition and deduction.
By intuition Descartes did not mean the results from our
senses, nor constructions of the imagination, but the conception which an
unclouded and attentive mind gives us so distinctly that we are free from doubt
about which we understand. Intuition springs from light of reason alone. By
deduction, Descartes meant that we understand all necessary inference from
other facts that are known with certainty. Descartes believed that many things
are known with certainty but are not self evident, but are deduced from true
and known principles by the continuous and uninterrupted action of a mind that
has a clear vision of each step in the deductive process.
Rule IV is for the need of a method for finding out the
truth. By a method Descartes meant a certain and simple rule such that if a man
observe them accurately, he shall never assume what is false as true. Rule V
states that method consists entirely in the order and disposition of the
objects towards which our mental vision must be directed if we are to find any
truth. We shall comply with it exactly if we reduce involved and obscure
propositions step by step to those that are simpler, and then starting with the
intuitive apprehension of all those that are absolutely simple, attempt to
ascend to the knowledge of all others by precisely similar steps.
Rule VI states that in order to separate out what is
simple from what is complex, and to arrange these matters methodically, we
ought , in the case of every series in which we have deduced certain facts the one from the other,
to notice which fact is simpler. This rule is certainly the secret to the
method. It states that all facts can be arranged in a certain series in that
certain truths can be known from others. Things should not be regarded as
isolated realities, but should be compared with one another in order to
discover the dependence in knowledge of one upon the other, and as such all
things can be said to be absolute or relative. Absolute contains within itself
the pure and simple essence of what we are in quest. The relative is that which,
while participating in the same nature enables us to relate it to the absolute
and to deduce it from that by a chain of operations. There are few pure and
simple essences. They should be carefully noticed for they are just those facts
which we have called the simplest in any series. All others can only be
perceived as deductions from these.
Rule VIII states that if in matters to be examined we
come to a step in the series of which our understanding is not sufficiently able
to have a intuitive cognition, we should stop and go no further. We should
spare ourselves superfluous labor.
As you can tell from these few rules, Descartes had a
passion for certainty. That was not unusual in this age were centuries of
authority was being rejected. Descartes believed knowledge was revealed truth.
Descartes believed that reason was equal in all men and that reason was
adequate to the power of forming good judgment and the ability to distinguish
the true from the false. This was different from the Greeks who believed reason
was adequate but not distributed equally in all men. In the Middle Ages, little
or no account was taken of reason but they assumed all men were morally equal
before God.
Descartes part two to follow.
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