Discourse on Method by Rene Descartes - Book Report/Review Example

On Dis on Method Touted as the Father of Modern Philosophy, Rene Descartes (1596-1650) has both historically influenced and the development of modern thinking. Descartes exemplifies the quest for new foundations for knowledge that marked the end of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. After an adventurous and varied life as soldier, mathematician, and teacher, Descartes became dissatisfied with traditional ways of knowing, because he encountered such a variety of truth claims. He decided to break with traditional ways by applying a principle of radical doubt (Microsoft Encarta 2005). In Part 2 of his book Discourse on Method, he elaborated both his traditional and modern attitude towards education. He explained that since mathematics has achieved the certainty for which human thinkers seek, the traditional persons should rightly turn to mathematical reasoning as a model for progress in human knowledge. Expressing perfect confidence in the capacity of human reason to achieve knowledge, Descartes proposed an intellectual process that suggested the architectural destruction and rebuilding of an entire town. In Part 2, he writes: It is true, however, that it is not customary to pull down all the houses of a town with the single design of rebuilding them differently, and thereby rendering the streets more handsome; but it often happens that a private individual takes down his own with the view of erecting it anew, and that people are even sometimes constrained to this when their houses are in danger of falling from age, or when the foundations are insecure. What is true of buildings and constitutions is also true for knowledge. The fact that the existing sciences have often grown up gradually with no uniform plan explains this as a key role of processing the “unlearning” of what we have previously learned. Descartes used that as an example to explain that in order to be absolutely sure that we accept only what is genuinely certain, we must first deliberately renounce all of the firmly held but questionable traditional beliefs we have previously acquired by experience and education. However, he later warns about the consequences of the reconstruction, such that: For although I recognized various difficulties in this undertaking, these were not, however, without remedy, nor once to be compared with such as attend the slightest reformation in public affairs. Large bodies, if once overthrown, are with great difficulty set up again, or even kept erect when once seriously shaken, and the fall of such is always disastrous (Discourse, Part 2). Furthermore, he explained that if there are any imperfections in the constitutions of states, tradition has materially leveled their problems and will manage to steer clear of the defects. Thus, in this part, Descartes denies that his plan to undertake the reform of knowledge has a revolutionary design. He believed that it would be unwise to undertake the reform of a state or education by undertaking it from the ground up. However, regarding his own opinions and beliefs, it would be preferable "to get rid of them, all at one go, in order to replace them afterward with better ones." Hence, Descartes finds himself caught in the middle between two types of people. There are those on whom "God has bestowed more of his favors" and will no doubt see his plans for self-improvement as too cautious. Then, there are others who are content to follow existing opinion and practice as the only reliable guide. Descartes advised that he would have included himself in this second class, if he had not come upon a discovery that there is no opinion or custom so strange that it has not been held or practiced by someone somewhere. He mentions that his travels merely confirmed to him that custom is variable and that we hold the opinions we do purely as a matter of chance. 2. The Middle Ages was characterized by two intellectual crises that profoundly affected Western civilization. First, the decline of the traditional Aristotelian thought that eventually questioned the methods and foundations of the sciences. Second, new attitudes toward religion undermined religious authority and gave agnostic and atheistic ideas a chance to be heard. During the 17th century, René Descartes attempted to resolve both crises. He followed Francis Bacon and Galileo in criticizing existing methods and beliefs, but whereas Bacon had argued for an inductive method based on observed facts, Descartes made mathematics the model for all science. Descartes staunchly supported the truth contained in the “clear and distinct ideas” of reason itself. Descartes believed that by following his rationalist method, one could establish the fundamental underlying truths for all knowledge (Microsoft Encarta 2005). Before the Enlightenment period, many people accepted the way things were and did not question there being. When the Enlightenment period ushered in, the reformation of political institutions was a topic of vital concern to many philosophers like Hobbes and Locke. Hobbes believed that the more he learned the more ignorant he felt, Hobbes used his scientific thinking along with his reasoning to come up with his "ideal" society. On the other hand, Locke believed that all men are in a state of perfect freedom and are over their own actions, depending on their will. Locke also supported the thought that we are in a state of equality. No one has more power than the next and men are free to do what they please as long as they do not take away the rights of others (SEP Website). On the contrary, Rene Descartes maintained to be apolitical because he believes everyone is born with a good sense of their surroundings and everyone uses good judgment because it is what differentiates us from animals. Descartes wanted to devote his life to the truth so he would agree with others on social ideas because he could not find answers to the questions. In Part 4 of Discourse on Method, he concluded that only clear and distinct ideas could be true. This methodical doubting drove Descartes back from the objects of knowledge, and even from ideas generally, to one clear and distinct insight he could not possibly doubt: his own existence. "I think, therefore I am; Cogito, ergo sum." This means that even if his ideas about the world are erroneous, “I know I exist”. Thus, we could also draw out here that he thinks that just because the people are making up the rules are of the higher social class, it does not mean they are right; especially when it comes to running the government (Cropsey, 1977). Descartes, in his Discourse on Method, lays down a provisional morality. The moral basis on which Bacon and Descartes rely is a combination of a judgment that traditional morality was impotent to protect human freedom, and recognition that all men agree that bodily wants, and freedom from the interference of others, are goods that must be satisfied (Smith, 2004). For example, Descartes says that the "preservation of health is without doubt the chief blessing and the foundation of all other blessings in this life" (Discourse, Part 4). Obviously, Descartes supports a hedonistic type of government that does not yield any account of justice or of moral duty. Descartes own view of morality would seem to have more in common with a parallel stream that understands morality as primarily concerning the individuals virtue or contentment. Going through the philosophy of Descartes and his suggestion of a modern scientific method, both cultural developments supported the idea that the person who engages in the act of knowing himself or herself is the measure and a defining factor of what can count for truth. Therefore, this idea had radical implications for modern peoples willingness to grant institutions, like the government and the Church, the authority for their thinking and acting. 3. Descartes ethical views are elaborately featured in Part 3 of the Discourse on Method as he considers the practical consequences of adopting his rules of method. In here, Descartes felt compelled to address the concerns of critics who will see his methods as subversive of existing modes and orders. While Descartes attempted to protect himself from the charges of unbelief by appending an argument for the existence of God along with his rules of evidence, he knows that many of his critics will disagree with him on this. In Part 3, the most promising of the ideas he came up is the "provisional moral code". Some scholars have read this as a definitive statement of Descartes position, but they say it is inconsistent with Descartes writings on other parts of the Discourse on Method. Descartes frames the rules of his provisional moral code as part of the epistemological project, which is the search for certainty, in order that he may act decisively and live as happily as possible while avoiding "precipitate conclusions and assumptions," (SEP Website). In his efforts in trying to answer his possible critics, Descartes formulated the “three to four” maxims of the "provisional moral code", which is adopted as a guide to conduct. These are summarized as follows: The first was to obey the laws and customs of my country, holding constantly to the religion in which by Gods grace I had been instructed from my childhood.... The second maxim was to be as firm and decisive in my actions as I could, and to follow even the most doubtful opinions, once I had adopted them, with no less constancy than if they had been quite certain.... My third maxim was to try always to master myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world.... Finally, to conclude this moral code... I thought I could do no better than to continue with the [occupation] I was engaged in, and to devote my whole life to cultivating my reason and advancing as far as I could in the knowledge of the truth, following the method I had prescribed for myself (Discourse, Part 3). Later on, Descartes poses a rhetorical question as, "how can the skeptic live his beliefs,” after submitting all his previous beliefs to systematic doubt, how is it possible to live in the world? In answering this question, Descartes went out of his way in trying to convince his critics by affirming the broadly "conservative" nature of his moral teachings. This reveals the apparent contradiction between his embracing of thoroughgoing doubt in theoretical matters and his advocating of decisiveness in practical matters, particularly in reference to the first and second maxims of the “provisional moral code”. Observable too is Descartes apparent uncertainty about the number of rules in his provisional code ("three or four"). While the first three prescribe how to act in the absence of any certain knowledge of good and evil, the fourth rule holds out the possibility of cultivating his reason so as to arrive at knowledge of the truth. He remarks that in the discovery of such truths he has experienced "such extreme contentment that I did not think one could enjoy any sweeter or purer one in this life". By following the method he has prescribed for himself and exercising his capacity for judgment, he is confident of eventually acquiring all the true knowledge of which he is capable, and "in this way all the true goods within my reach" (Smith, 2004). This makes Descartes’ ethics stand firmly on an ideal of virtue as a capacity for the rational choice of conquering one’s self, together with the assumption that virtue by itself is sufficient for happiness: Since our will tends to pursue or avoid only what our intellect represents as good or bad, we need only to judge well in order to act well, and to judge as well as we can in order to do our best--that is to say, in order to acquire all the virtues and in general all the other goods we can acquire. And when we are certain of this, we cannot fail to be happy. (Discourse, Part 3) Clearly, Descartes demonstrated the two core ideas of his ethics: the notion of virtue, as a disposition of the will to choose in accordance with reasons judgments about the good, and the notion of happiness, as a state of mental well-being that is achieved through the practice of virtue (SEP Website). 4. Descartes offered proofs of the existence of the soul and of God. As he delves on the nature of dreams and the unreliability of the senses, he becomes aware of his own process of thinking and realizes it is proof of his existence. In Part 4 of Discourse on Method, he concluded that only clear and distinct ideas could be true. This methodical doubting drove Descartes back from the objects of knowledge, and even from ideas generally, to one clear and distinct insight he could not possibly doubt: his own existence. "I think, therefore I am; Cogito, ergo sum." This means that even if his ideas about the world are incorrect and invalid, “I know I exist”. Descartes insistence on his own potential for error and the self-conscious style of the Discourse on Method encourage distance from its text. As mentioned above, a major theme of the Discourse on Method is that reading books and other traditional means of attaining knowledge are not enough. Thus, he writes: Since I knew of some perfections that I did not possess, I was not the only being in existence... but that of necessity, it must be the case that there is something else more perfect upon which I depended.... Had I been alone and independent of everything else ... I would have been able... to give to myself the remainder of what I knew was lacking in myself [the perfections he lacks]; and thus I would have all the perfection I could discern in God (Discourse, Part 4). He also concludes that the soul is separate from the body based on the unreliability of the senses as compared with pure reason. He explains this from a strange conception of the “I entirely distinct from the body" is joined with a materialistic physics of bodies in motion. It is here that Descartes references his earlier treatise on The World (Le Monde), written between 1629 and 1635 but only published posthumously in 1664. In this work of which he gives only the barest summary, Descartes sets out to rewrite the biblical account of creation in Genesis beginning with the problem of light. It was due, however, to the troubles encountered by Galileo that he decided to forego publication of the work and focus instead on the discussion of human creation. The human world, we are told, consists of various "automatons" and other mechanical bodies. Anticipating later debates over the possibility of artificial intelligence, Descartes even wonders whether there could ever be a human machine and how we could distinguish a robot from a person (Cropsey, 1979). Descartes is caught in a pragmatic contradiction: he is the author of a book that warns us that true knowledge cannot come from reading books. Emphasizing the artificial or constructed nature of his text and encouraging distance from it are ways of demonstrating that all texts are to be read with caution. Moreover, they are gestures of respect to the reader. In effect, Descartes is saying, "Reading a book is not the best way to attain knowledge, and we both know that this is a book. Read with caution, but listen to what I have to say despite the form in which it comes," Bicknell, 2003 p. 27). By displaying these doubts, Descartes warns his readers to think through the ideas and arguments he presents. Thus, he is able to demonstrate the importance of individual reason. Also, Descartes refusal to present himself as a foolproof authority is some sort of a gesture of respect for his readers. Descartes view of his readers and the society more generally is “atomistic”: he speaks to his reader as one individual to another. This is perhaps nowhere clearer than in his exposition of the cogito. The fact that Descartes—a single individual—cannot doubt his own existence while he thinks, forms the "foundation" of a new philosophy. Descartes implies that anyone who wishes may follow the same process of reasoning, confirm his own existence, then the existence of God, and so forth (Bicknell, 2003 p. 28). The resulting understanding is lies on the individual who will read his book. He relates his thoughts so that others may evaluate them and judge whether the foundations of his new methods are valid. However, the process of evaluation he invites is not social but completely private. Descartes requires each single reader to undertake the method of doubt for himself. Works Cited Bicknell, J. Descartes Rhetoric: Roads, Foundations, and Difficulties in the Method Philosophy and Rhetoric, vol. 36, no. 1 (2003) 22-38 Cropsey, J. On Descartes Discourse on Method, in Political Philosophy and the Issues of Politics (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977) Descartes’ Ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Website. Acquired online last October 15, 2005 at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ethics/ Rene Descartes. Microsoft® Encarta® 2005 [CD-ROM]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005 Smith, S.B. An Exemplary Life: The Case of Rene Descartes. The Review of Metaphysics, vol. 57, no. 3 (March, 2004) 571-97 Read More