Descartes: Historical, Philosophical, and Cultural Context
Historical Context of René Descartes
The historical context of René Descartes (1596-1650) corresponds to the era depicted in Alexandre Dumas’s novel, The Three Musketeers. Descartes, a 17th-century philosopher, lived during the French Golden Age. Politically, France, like other major European nations at the time, was organized as an absolute monarchy, which would reach its zenith under Louis XIV, characterized by the identification between the monarch and the state.
The 17th century was also a period of crisis in Europe. The consolidation of modern states, their imperialist ambitions, and the struggle for hegemony among France, Spain, Holland, and England led to major conflicts. Much of Descartes’s life coincided with the Thirty Years’ War between the Catholic and Protestant factions of the German Empire. In fact, the second chapter of Discourse on Method is set in Germany, where Descartes claims he was moved by the “desire to learn about war”.
From a socioeconomic standpoint, the 17th century saw a strong development of the bourgeoisie linked to mercantile capitalism, aided by the expansion of maritime trade and colonial ventures.
Philosophical Context of Descartes
Descartes’s life coincided with the end of the Renaissance. From a philosophical standpoint, God was no longer the central focus of philosophical concern, as had been the case during the Middle Ages. Man became the main object of philosophy, especially concerning issues related to knowledge.
Descartes is considered the founder and chief representative of rationalism. This current of thought takes inspiration from modern science (Galileo, Bacon, Kepler) and the mathematical method. Moreover, as the name suggests, rationalists give reason and theoretical knowledge radical importance, accepting the innateness of the essential principles of knowledge and dismissing sensory knowledge as an unreliable source. Leibniz, Spinoza, and, of course, Descartes himself are the main representatives of Rationalism.
Descartes formulated a theory about the physical world (extended substance) called mechanism, which attempts to explain the world as a great machine. This theory would be a forerunner of later materialist philosophies, such as La Mettrie’s Man a Machine.
Historically, rationalism found its opposition in the British empiricism of Locke and Hume. They, and especially Hume, represent a radical opposition to the Cartesian philosophical current, rejecting the existence of innate ideas, emphasizing sensory information, and questioning the limits of human knowledge.
Cultural Context of Descartes
While the historical context of Descartes is the 17th century, from a cultural perspective, it is the Baroque era, a period characterized by an overall tone of pessimism. This pessimism was largely influenced by the theological confrontation between Catholics and Protestants, in which Descartes participated.
Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, suggests that the intellectual fatigue caused by this endless war had the effect of diverting the attention of the brightest minds (including Descartes) to non-religious subjects, especially science and mathematics. This statement may be considered appropriate in Descartes’s case.
Another interesting cultural feature of this era is the invention and development of the printing press. This invention allowed the field of culture to extend beyond church circles (monasteries, cathedrals), becoming accessible to people outside the religious sphere. This also explains why Latin began to lose its status as the exclusive language of scholars, and many books were published in national languages. In fact, Discourse on Method was one of the first works written in French.
One event was particularly important in Descartes’s intellectual life: his awareness of Galileo’s condemnation by the court of the Inquisition in Rome. Descartes feared that some of his ideas could be subject to a similar trial and, therefore, decided not to publish his Treatise on the World. Only a few years later, in 1637, he published some of his scientific work, Dioptric, Meteors, and Geometry, preceded, as a methodological introduction, by the Discourse on Method.
It is probably the fear of censorship that led him to publish this book anonymously, making it clear repeatedly in the second chapter that his intentions were nothing other than to reform his own knowledge. He discourages everyone from doing the same. In the fourth chapter, he highlights the importance of God as a guarantor of all knowledge. Without a doubt, the opposite could have been interpreted as a call for a kind of revolution, which would have been absolutely unacceptable to the authorities of the time.
Despite these “precautions,” Descartes faced criticism. In 1643, the Council of the University of Utrecht condemned him for atheism. He was later accused of Pelagianism, and after his death, some of his major works were condemned by the Church.