Rene Descartes
6 You may know of Descartes as more of a mathematician than a philosopher, but his contributions to philosophy were extensive and often touched on matters of morals and the existence of God.
Who Was He?
2Rene Descartes was born in France in 1596 and had a highly academic upbringing. 3He had a law degree by the time he was 22 though he had a stronger interest in mathematics, logic, ethics and metaphysics. 4He eventually felt that further knowledge could only come from within himself. 5He reportedly had three intense dreams that set him on the path of philosophy. 6He never married and died of pneumonia at the age of 53, whilst in the employ of Sweden s Queen Christina, as her philosophy tutor.
7Many of Descartes theories stem from his belief in the nature of thought. 8His famous quote, I think, therefore I am is a good testament to that.
Dualism of the Mind and Body
9How our physical body relates and connects to our mind or soul has long been a subject for great debate and questioning, and one might say the answer still eludes us. 1ODescartes proposed a dualistic theory that our minds are distinctly separate from our bodies. 11He even went so far as to determine that the point of connection was the pineal gland at the base of the brain. 12The mind was the seat of control for the body, but the connection did go both ways and the mind could also be influenced by the body.
13This is the subject of two books by Descartes, Passions of the Soul and The Description of the Human Body.
Belief in God
14Descartes had a strong belief in God, though he tended to look upon religion from a very rational or logical point of view. 15In his most influential work, Meditations on First Philosophy, he discussed a number of topics including several variations on this spiritual theme. 16He took a very logical approach and came up with two distinct arguments that supposedly prove the existence of God. 17The first went like this:
i. Something cannot come from nothing
ii. An idea must have at least as much true reality as it does objective reality
iii. I have an idea of God
iv. I cannot be the originating source of this idea because I am not an infinite or perfect being. I do not possess enough formal reality to create such an idea. Only an infinite and perfect being can create such an idea
v. Therefore there must exist a concept as God that is the cause of my idea
18Simply put, he feels that any idea that we can develop in our minds must have some basis in reality. 19This concept is found through many of his theories.
The Nature of Thought
20Also explained in his Meditations on First Philosophy, he had many ideas on our thoughts and how they connected to the physical world around us. 21Like many philosophers after him, he held specific ideas of how we perceived the world and how those perceptions truly reflect reality . 22He believed that thought held to five main principles:
1. We are only able to access our own ideas, objects in the world are only accessed indirectly
2. Ideas are made up of many components, such as perceptions, memories, concepts, beliefs, and more
3. Our ideas and the things they represent are separate and distinct from each other
4. These things are external to the mind
5. It is possible to hold ideas that are accurate as well as false
23The fact that the real world and our ideas about it are separate is linked to his mind-body theories about dualism that have been mentioned already.
True or False
24One last theory from Meditations on First Philosophy involves truth and falsities. 25This concept usually comes on the heels of his discussion about the existence of God. 26When presuming that God is a perfect being, how then can error or falsehood even exist? 27I ll let Descartes explain his thoughts in his own words, more or less:
“I find that I am an intermediate between God and nothingness, between a supreme entity and nonentity. Insofar as I am the creation of the supreme entity, there's nothing in me to account for my being deceived or led into error, but inasmuch as I somehow participate in nothing or nonentity – that is, insofar as I am distinct from the supreme entity itself and lack many things – it's not surprising that I go wrong. I thus understand that, in itself, error is a lack rather than a real thing dependent on God. Hence, I understand that I can err without God's having given me the special ability to do so. Rather, I fall into error because my God-given ability to judge the truth is not infinite. (Meditation IV: on truth and falsity)
28So he basically believed that our ability to make mistakes was not an actual ability in itself, but rather a lack of proper judgement, which then doesn t contradict the existence of a perfect God.
Further Works by Descartes
29Though his major books have been mentioned already, there are other examples of his work available if you want to continue reading about his philosophy.
i. Discourse on the Method
ii. Principles of Philosophy
iii. Rules for the Direction of the Mind
30But if you are going to do any study of Descartes, you'll want to start with the Meditations on First Philosophy.