"Meditation"

Rene Descartes (reh-nay day-cart)

(1596-1650)

French

Went to college from age 8 to 16

Studied logic, philosophy, and mathematics

His work "Meditations" was published in 1641*

MEDITATIONS ON THE FIRST PHILOSOPHY IN WHICH THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MIND AND BODY ARE DEMONSTRATED

• He searched for an undoubted truth. So he used the method of doubt. Anything he could possible doubt for any reason, he discarded. This is important to understand, because this is why he threw off using God as a basis for any of his truth. He, as well as I, believed that we know God via faith not fact.
• He discards any knowledge we get from sense perception, because ours senses can deceive us (like how a stick looks like it bends when you stick it in water).
• He discards knowledge from the senses because he could be insane, and imagining everything he sees, feels, etc.
• He discards knowledge from the senses because he could be dreaming.
• He doubts the sciences because they "are very dubious and uncertain" but verifies mathematical truths because they are true whether or not he is dreaming.
• He discards knowledge from the senses because God could be an evil genius who "has employed his while energies in deceiving me."

• Thus he concludes that the mind is more knowable than the body.
• He doubts everything he sees, and so discards it.
• Then he says, "I myself, am I knot at least something... was I not then likewise persuaded that I did not exist... of a surety I myself did exist since I persuaded myself of something... then without a doubt I exist also if [God] deceives me, and let him deceive me as much as he will, he can never cause me to be nothing so long as I think that I am something.
• Thus he concludes "I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it."

We are more familiar with I think therefore I am... but there it is.

COMMENTS

I always considered Descartes to be a heathen because he discarded God as a source of truth, but according to his method of doubt, it fits fine. I am good with it now.

In the beginning of his meditation, he stated that he waited until he was retired--removed from all the passions of youth, distractions and ambitions, etc--to start on his journey of finding indubitable truth. This makes a lot of sense. I feel like a lot of these concepts would be easier to hold on to if i wasn't in the place Descartes specifically avoided before meditating on such topics.

I love his method of doubt, and all the ideas he had. I recognize it wasn't perfect, but i still enjoy his thoughts. After all they are, simply put, meditations.

I doing this summery/endnotes because it helps with my studies (I have an exam tomorrow), and it fits perfectly under why I write this blog: (one of the reasons being) to write about what i think about what i read. Any thoughts on Descartes?