Descartes and His Philosophical Context
Context: Descartes in the 17th Century
Descartes was a philosopher in the 17th century, a period of instability in Europe due to broken unity and economic challenges. Monarchies faced crises and debt, alongside social antagonisms. However, maritime trade expanded, and England saw colonial and industrial development, boosting the bourgeoisie against the nobility and fostering urban society.
Politically, it was the era of absolutism, asserting divine origin and unlimited power. Yet, the English Revolution introduced constitutional monarchy, limiting the monarch’s powers. Modern states emerged, independent and sovereign, but religious intolerance led to the Thirty Years’ War (in which Descartes participated) and Galileo’s condemnation.
In culture, printing spread knowledge, reason was valued over authority, and freedom, equality, and individualism were asserted. The new science from the Renaissance progressed, Baroque art emerged, and literature included Cervantes and Shakespeare.
Philosophical Context
Scholasticism was criticized, and new science developed with a heliocentric universe model, emphasizing experimentation and mathematization. Modern philosophy began, shifting focus from God to humans and epistemology. A new truth criterion replaced authority and faith: reason and experience, leading to Rationalism and Empiricism.
Rationalism, prominent in continental Europe, asserted reason as the knowledge source, defending innate ideas and mathematics (deduction). Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz were key figures.
Empiricism, in Britain, considered experience (internal and external) as the knowledge source, denying innate ideas and emphasizing personal experience. The mind was seen as a blank slate, with knowledge gained through experience. Physics (induction) was the knowledge model, with Locke and Hume as leading figures.
Descartes and Plato
Descartes’ philosophy relates to Plato’s, as both share epistemological concerns, consider reason a path to truth, and use mathematics as a model.
Plato distinguished between the sensitive world (images and physical objects) and the intelligible world (mathematical entities and ideas). The sensitive world is material, mutable, and perishable, while the intelligible is intangible, immutable, and eternal.
Views represent knowledge of the sensitive world through senses (conjecture and belief). Knowledge represents the intelligible world (discursive reasoning, deduction in Descartes, and pure intelligence, intuition in Descartes).
Plato’s ideas have ontological value, while for Descartes, they are mental acts. Both defend innate ideas. Plato believed knowledge is remembering ideas from the intelligible world (reminiscence). Descartes proposed a dualist conception of humans: body (extended substance) and soul (thinking substance).
Plato’s ethics, moral intellectualism, considers knowledge of good essential for good actions. He proposed virtues like moderation, fortitude, and prudence. Descartes also linked free will to understanding.
In politics, Plato envisioned an ideal society with producers, guardians, and philosopher-rulers. Descartes, unlike Plato, didn’t propose political or social changes, urging acceptance of laws and customs.
Descartes’ Influence
Descartes’ influence on Western thought is significant. He broke with faith and authority, initiating rationalism, impacting idealism and phenomenology. The search for truth remains, but absolute truth is rejected for utility, perspective, and relativism. The method is still debated in science, where metaphysics is deemed meaningless without empirical basis. The soul-body relationship is now the mind-brain problem, with Cartesian separation seen as an error.