Philosophy of Rene Descartes - Assignment Example

Professor Name Institution, course number Date Philosophy Rene Descartes is considered to be one of the founders of modern philosophy. He has managed to give deep and clear formulation of the basic assumptions of the classical period of modern European philosophy. The starting point of Descartes philosophy, as well as Beacon’s one, is the problem of authenticity of knowledge. But unlike Bacon, who was focused on the practical studies of knowledge, Descartes looked for signs of validity of it by means of its internal characteristics. As well as Beacon, Descartes rejected the authority as the witness of truth and was concentrated more on the mathematic hypothesis. He connected their accuracy with the deep work analysis. As a result, he managed to transform complex problems into the simple ones and reached the level at which the truth or falsity of statements was considered with great carefulness, as in the case with mathematic axioms. The aim of this work is to analyze the philosophy of Rene Descartes according to the principles of his work “The meditations and selection from the principles of Rene Descartes” and to give the explanation to the main contents of the book. 1. “I find I have insensibly reverted to the point I desired; for since it is now manifest to me that bodies themselves are not properly perceived by the senses nor by the faculty of imagination but by the intellect alone” (Rene Descartes, 1903). The statement is taken from the Meditation two and comprise the main idea described in this chapter. Descartes offers to recourse to methodological doubt in order to see the real state of things. It should be noted that the test of certainty imposed very high requirements, obviously superior to those that satisfy the author, for example, when considering the mathematic axioms. After all, the validity of them can also be doubtful, while Descartes tried to find the truth, which was imperturbable. Some of his doubts may seem absurd and strange, but have the right for existence. The Descartes conclusions as for the question of authenticity of knowledge may seem naïve firstly, although he found unconditional and indisputable evidence, which were revealed in the words: I think, therefore I exist (Latin, cogito, ergo sum). Descartes was sure about one fact - the existence of cognitive thinking. This method provides ​​a lot of ideas, some of which are supported by different facts. Rene Descartes vied things from different angles, in his work, he wrote: “I feel greatly astonished when I observe (the weakness of my mind, and) its proneness to error. For although, without at all giving expression to what I think, I consider all this in my own mind, words yet occasionally impede my progress, and I am almost led into error by the terms of ordinary language. We say, for example, that we see the same wax when it is before us, and not that we judge it to by the same from its retaining the same color and figure: whence I should forthwith be disposed to conclude that the wax is known by the act of sight, and not by the intuition of the mind alone, were it not for the analogues instance of human beings passing on in the street below, as observed from a window” (1903). The initial skepticism of Descartes made him find the answers to his question not in the only source, but in different ones. This brought him to the concept of certainty, which is revealed through the long process of study. Descartes believed that all possible things constituted two separate and independent substances - spiritual and corporeal. Corporeal nature is represented by Descartes as the concept of mechanism. Nature is a purely material entity, its content is exhausted only by stretch and movement. Animals and human bodies are subject to the actions of the same mechanical principles and represent a "self-propelled machines”. The most difficult problem of the philosophy of Descartes is the relation of body and soul. Unlike people, animals do not have souls and live automatically. A person is able to control his body with the help of mind, while mind exists under the influence of the body. The complexity of the problem is the combination of the effects of two completely different substances in nature. Connection of body and soul represents the scheme of essentially mechanical interaction. Strengthening the rule of mind over emotions and passions of the body is the principle source for finding formulas of moral behavior in a variety of situations. One of the Descartes’ rules of life constitutes that a person should fight more with his character than with his fate, change his desires rather than the world order and believe that there is nothing that would be entirely in his power except the thoughts. 2. Descartes arises those questions, which are meaningful and eternal: the existence of God, the sense of life, the essence of study and its influence on person’s life. The first issue (the existence of God) is the main problem, which he described in his Third meditation. In this part of his work he gave a complete description of the essence of God: “By the name God, I understand a substance infinite, (eternal, immutable), independent, all-knowing, all-powerful, and by which I myself, and every other thing that exists, if any such there be, were created” (1903). Among the ideas of people’s thinking there is the idea of ​​God as a perfect being. The whole experience of the person testifies that people are limited and imperfect creatures. God created people and invested in their minds the concept of perfect being. This statement explains the necessity to make the world an object for the research. God cannot deceive people. Thus, God is represented by Descartes as a guarantor of objectivity and comprehensibility of the world of human cognition. The whole system of Descartes’ argument makes the idea of ​​the existence of a fundamental principle of the rationalist theory of knowledge quite clear. “And thus, it is absolutely necessary to conclude, from all that I have before said, that God exists: for though the idea of substance be in my mind owing to this, that I myself am a substance, I should not, however, have the idea of an infinite substance, seeing I am a finite being, unless it were given me by some substance in reality infinite” (1902). 3. One of the leading philosophical traditions of European philosophy was the empiricism, founded by Francis Beacon. Empiricism is the direction in the theory of knowledge, which considers the sensual experience as the only source of authentic knowledge. Rationalism is a philosophical direction, which considers mind as the basis of knowledge and human behavior, the source and criterion of the truth of people’s life aspirations. The rationalism theory (developed by Rene Descartes) is the alternative to the theory of empiricism. From the point of view of Descartes, it is not enough to have a good mind, but the most important is to know how to use them. In order to check this theory in practice, he developed his own rules. There are four of them: 1) The first rule is the rule of evidence. Evidence in the sense of clarity and distinctness is the final point of knowledge. Mental act by means of which the evidence is reached forms the content of intellectual intuition. 2) The second rule is the rule of analysis. The main idea of this rule is the division of the complex issues into the simple ones. 3) The third one is the rule of synthesis, consisting in the fact that if one wants to have his thoughts in order, he should start with the simplest objects, which are easy for learning, and step by step move to the complex ones. 4) Rule Four is the rule of control. At this stage the completeness of the analysis and correctness of the synthesis is checked. Descartes applied these methods to his own actual philosophical knowledge, which aimed to detect obvious truths that constituted the foundation of science. In order to achieve this aim, Descartes threw down upon the methodological question all the traditional ways of knowledge justification. He refused to recognize the sensual experience as the base of knowledge. Doubt is the act of thinking. Since one doubts he thinks. All the vague ideas are the products of human subjectivity, and they are false. In contrast, all clear ideas, which came from God, are objectively true. As a rationalist, Descartes insisted on the exclusive role of deduction in the learning process. Under the content of deduction he understood the argument, based on a completely reliable assumptions (axioms) and a consisting chain of reliable inferences. Empiricism in its turn, has its own principles. They are: The possibility to create the main principles of knowledge obtaining. Knowledge is impeccable. Knowledge consists of the parts of impeccable learning. All knowledge is applied as a result of perception and feelings. Knowledge based on the experience is isolated, while the empirical knowledge is fragmented. The experience, based upon the private feelings is personal, while knowledge should be subjective. There is no need to talk about the sensual impressions, as the science should stick to the researched facts and connections between them. Complex conceptions are formed out of the simple meanings. The direct answers should be supported by the evidence. The theories of Beacon and Descartes, which are both possess the principles of rationalism can be desperately supported by the theory, suggested by David Hume, who rejects miracles as the events of life. This idea was used in his work “An inquiry concerning human understanding” firstly appeared in 1748. It was explained with details and proclaimed miracles as the violations of the laws of nature. This idea can be considered as the example of skepticism, as it represents doubts about the events happened in the world and rejects them. Miracle is not a branch of knowledge and does not possess any evidence of this event, consequently it has no scientific value and is only the suggestion of uneducated people. This theory became a real threat for the Christianity, as this religion is based both on the history and legends. Jesus is described as a creator of enormous miracles, such as: going on the water, healing people and so forth. Despite the fact, that Hume’s theory was quite popular, a lot of people find it quite unconvincing. 4. One more significant critic of the philosophy is Friedrich Nietzsche. In his works he paid special attention to human values, which lost their importance with the course of time. He called this content – nihilism. Nietzsche is not a nihilist, he does not reject the values and sees the way out only in revaluation of the values. The morality is the highest level of misconception. Nietzsche hates the concept of truth and denies Christianity, but he is not atheist. He considers the existence of God as a fact, which is of no importance, the most important thing is the faith of people. There is no absolute contents of good or evil. Rejecting the evil, the person denies the sense of life. The nature of the person constitutes that love, hate, kindness and anger are closely connected with each other. He makes conclusion that morality is not the natural state of a person. Morality is a protection for “mentally young people”, because the “grown up ones” possess the ability to attack. The nature of the authority is dual. Nietzsche praised war and found its preciousness in the main values of human characters such as brevity and nobility. War brings people closer to their nature. The will for power is the will for life. On the other hand, the power can be both useful and harmful. Submissiveness is a form of war. Life is the most precious human value, which can be realized only by means of achieving power. The idea of the overman is the central idea of his study. The overman, created by Nietzsche denies the moral values and creates his own ones. Consciousness is not typical for him. Selfishness is a symbol of noble soul. People should sacrifice their values in the name of a selfish person. The idea of Christianity must be substituted by the idea of overman. Christianity cultivates the weakness and empathy, which are not typical for strong people. The teaching of Nietzsche is considered as one of the most complex and contradictory in the modern science. 5. The importance of learning of philosophy was described by such famous scientists as Socrates, J.S. Mill, B. Russell and J. Dewey. They considered that people have to learn during their life, especially the technique of philosophical thinking. Bertrand Russell wrote that philosophy exists somewhere between the theology and science. The science teaches people that they are able to learn, but some knowledge is not available for them. Theology, in its turn, states the fact that people know something that, in fact, is not proved. Philosophy trains mind. It helps to separate eternal things from temporary ones in order to develop the individual thinking. It also helps to overcome ones insularity. Studying of philosophy is necessary for the self-cognition and achieving the ability to think and speak correctly. Philosophy is tightly connected with the world view and determines its character and general direction, which helps people to solve the problems in different aspects. It also forms the general picture of the world and criticize the order of the things in it. It highlights the most significant ideals of a certain period of time and promotes the development of a theoretical thinking of a person. Philosophy helps to answer the most frequent life questions and plays the major role in the formation of the personality. Works Cited Rene Descartes. The meditations and selections from the principles of Rene Descartes. Chicago: The open court publishing company. 1902. Print. Read More