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Descartes

Western Philosophy (University of Delhi)

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Descartes
Rene Descartes was born on 31st march, 1596 in the Touraine region of france.He is one of the central figures in
Western Philosophy and is considered as the father of Modern philosophy. Descartes rejected Aristotlean
philosophy and challenged the authority of tradition and the authority of senses. Descartes was resolved to rely
on his own reason and not on authority in his search for truth.He wanted to demonstrate truths in a rational and
systematic order,irrespective of whether these truths has been previously discovered or not.

His major works are Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Meditations on First Philosophy, and Discourse on the
Method, Principles of Philosophy, Traite du monde and Passions of the Soul.

Descartes held that the knowledge about the truth or falsity of the proposition was contingent on the full
understanding of that proposition,this method of knowing the truth or falsity of a proposition is called
intuition.These propositions which could be completely understood would be self evident, because knowledge
of them would not depend upon knowledge of any other proposition.This would be a fundamental proposition
and other propositions can be derived from it through deduction.Deduction is described as ‘all necessary
inference from other facts which are known with certainty’.Intition and Deduction are two fundamental
operations of mind through which we are able ‘without any fear of illusion, to arrive at the knowledge of
things’.

His identification of knowledge with understanding characterizes him as a rationalist philosopher.Rationalism is

the view that knowledge is obtained by reason and not sense experience.He was a mathematician and founded
analytical geometry, combining algebra with geometry.

The fundamental aim of Descartes philosophy was the attainment of truth by the use of reason.For him there
was only one kind of knowledge: certain knowledge.He was influenced by the certainty of concepts in
mathmatics and wanted to bring the same to philosophy.His idea of philosophy was that of a certain and well
ordered philosophy, such that the truths are so ordered that the mind passes from fundamental self evident
truths to other evident truths implied by the former.

He held that all sciences are organically connected branches of one science, which is identified with human
wisdom or understanding,therefore one universal method was applicable to all sciences (distinguishes him from
Aristotleans who hold that different sciences require different methods,Descartes proved it when he showed
that geometrical propositions can be proved by arithematical means).

The Method of Doubt

Descartes chief enemy was scepticism, therfore he set out to doubt everything that could possibly be doubted in
order to arrive at certain knowledge.

This is the Cartesian method of Doubt.This method consists in rules for employing intition and deduction
rightly.it contains in systematically subjecting to doubt all the opinions which one may possess in order to
arrive at indubitable fundamental knowledge.He resolved to discard anything he could conceivably disbelieve,
so that he would be left only with ropositions which he could not conceivably disbelieve.Cartesian doubt is
universal in the sense that it is applied universally to all that can be doubted, it is also methodic in the sense that
it is practised not for the sake of doubting but as a preliminary step towards the attainment of
certainty.Descartes is also called a ‘Methodological Sceptic”.

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The method involves reducing involved and obscure propositions step by step to those which are simpler, this is
what Descartes calls ‘analysis’ or the method of resolution and then start with the intuitive apprehension of the
simplest proposition and try by retracing the path through the same steps through deduction to see if the
complex propositions really follow from the simpler one, this he calls ‘synthesis’ or the method of composition.

Descartes was tempted to believe two propositions which he could not logically doubt.First, the propositions
about one’s own immediate sense experience and second, the simplest propositions about arithematic and
logic(for example, 2+2=4).But he overcame this temptation and subjected both of these to doubt.

Regarding the former Descarted held that senses could be deceptive, he could imagine himself sitting in front of
fire, while he was fast asleep, dreaming.So it conceivable to doubt the immediate sense experiences.

About the latter proposition, Descartes put forward the metaphysical hypothesis, the possibility that the world
was created and ruled by a powerful malicios demon, and not a benevolent God.Such a demon might decieve
him into thinking that those propositions are true, which inevitably appear to him to be certain, like 2+2=4.

Thus Descartes was willing to set aside as doubtful all propositions concernig existence and nature of material
thing and also those of mathmatical sciences, which appeared to him as models of clarity and certainty.He
extended doubt ti both empirical and analytical proposition.

Cogito Ergo sum

Descartes employed methodic doubt to discover whether there was any indubitable truth.he found this truth in
the affirmation Cogito Ergo Sum,’I think,therefore,I exist’.Descartes held that in the very act of doubting, the
certainty of my existence is manifest.

Even after employing the hypotheseis of the malicious demon, who has decieved him about everything, about
the existence of material things and even the truth and certainty of mathematical propositions, one cannot be
decieved about one’s own existence because if one is decieved, one must exist to be decieved: if one is
dreaming, one must exist to dream.One has an intuitive apprehension of one’s own existence.While affirming
Cogito ergo sum, Descartes is affirming one’s own existence as a thinking subject.

The Cogito Ergo Sum, provided it is taken in the sense of affirming my existence while I think, eludes all
doubts even the hyperbolical doubt of malicious demon.

The Cogito Ergo Sum is therefore the indubitable truth on which Descartes proposes to found his philosophy.

Substance
Descartes defined substance as ‘an existent thing which requires nothing else but itself in order to exist.

Descartes thus lays down an existential proposition, cogito ergo sum, as the fundamental proposition and
proceed on this basis to prove the existence of God.Here, descartes is concerned about ordo cognoscendi, the
order of discovery and not ordo essendi, the order of being.In the latter order, God is ontologically prior while
in the order of discovery, one’s own existence is prior. The objective existence of material things can be proved
only after existence of benevolent God has been proved and certain knowledge of God’s existence depends on
knowledge of one’s existence as a thinking subject.

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By God, Descartes understands ‘a substance which is infinite, independent, all knowing, all powerful and by
which I myself and everything else, if anything else exists, have been created.’

Within this thinking self, without reference to the external world, Descartes discovers an idea of God, an idea of
something so perfect that it could not have been caused in us by anything with less perfection than God Himself. From
this he concluded that God must exist which, in turn, guarantees that reason can be trusted. Since we are made in such a
way that we cannot help holding certain beliefs (the so-called ‘clear and distinct’ perceptions), God would be a deceiver,
and thus imperfect, if such beliefs were wrong; any mistakes must be due to our own misuse of reason. This is Descartes’
famous epistemological principle of ‘clear and distinct perception’.

Mind and Body

Cogito Ergo Sum asserts that I am a thinking and unextended thing, while on the other hand I have a clear and
distinct idea of body as an extended and unthinking thing.The faculty of sense experience does not presuppose
thought, so it must exist in something other than myself considered as an unextended and thinking thing, also I
find in myself certain faculties and activities like chaging position and locomotion, which clearly imply the
existence of a corporeal or extended substance: the body. Descartes equates mind with soul.

God who is not a deciever has made us percive clearly and distinctly both mind and body, So, both must
exist.Here, the hyperbolical doubt of malicious demon, who could have decieved us about the existence of
material objects, and life can be dismissed.Thus, the existence of Mind and Body both is certain.

The definition of Subsatance as ‘an existent thing which requires nothing but itself in order to exist’ applies to
God only, as being absolutely self sustaining.While mind and matter both depend on God for their
existence.Descartes assigned to Substances: Attributes.

He assignes one principle attribute to each substance, which we pwecieve clearly and distinctly as an
indispensable attribute of the thing, so that all other attributes, properties and qualities are seen to presuppose it
and depend on it.

The principle attribute of mind is thinking,’the essence of the sould is to think’, and the principal attribute of
body is extensuin, ‘Extension in length, breadth and depth constitutes the nature of corporeal substance’,

The principle attributes are inseparable from the substances of which they are attributes.But their modifications
can vary and substances can exist without them.These variable modifications of attributes of thought and
extension are called by Descartes ‘modes’.

A living person is a very intimate union of two things: mind and body, which are completely distinct and their
natures are exact opposite of the other.Descartes held the logical independence of every mind from its own
body.But at the same time, the occurences of mind, like decisions affect the body; and the occurences of body,
for example hunger, affect the mind.

Descartes tried to ascertain a point of interaction between the mind and the body in a human being, which he
located in a very small gland situated in the middle of the body.

However, the localization of the point of interaction does not solve the proble.But the completely different
natures of mind and body seem to preclude the possibility of this interaction. Hence, if this problem cannot be
resolved, then it could be used to imply that mind and body are not completely different but they must have
something in common in order to facilitate this interaction.This is the Mind-Body problem.

Though Descartes was not much concerened about this problem because he held that mind and body are
independent substances which find their unity in relation to the man whom they form together.

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Conclusion
In his History of Philosophy, Hegel regards Descartes as the real originator of modern philosophy.

CRITICISM: Along with the problem of mind-body interaction, another criticism is that one of the central arguments in
Descartes’ philosophy is threatened with circularity – the Cartesian Circle – since the arguments that establish the
trustworthiness of reason (the Cogito Argument and the argument for the existence of God) themselves seem to depend on
the trustworthiness of reason.

Descartes is certainly the most important french philosopher and his influence can be seen throughout the
french philosophy.

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