Key Concepts in Descartes’ Philosophy
Reason in Descartes’ Philosophy
Reason is Descartes’ criterion of truth. It is the faculty that allows us to distinguish truth from error and to establish correct judgments. According to Descartes, reason is autonomous, infallible, unique, and powerful, and it must follow the mathematical model to arrive at truth.
Knowledge and Method
Knowledge is the basic concern of Cartesian philosophy; the discovery of the truth by drawing on the right track with an appropriate method. For Descartes, reason has two ways of knowing: intuition and deduction.
Intuition
Intuition is a mode of knowledge, according to Descartes, which involves the immediate grasp of the truth and gives us the absolute certainty of the evidence. Cartesian intuition is not the result of the senses or the imagination, but of understanding. The object of knowledge is the first principles-axioms.
Deduction
Deduction is a mode of knowledge which establishes connections between ideas. Deduction is not immediate but discursive. It is the operation chairing the third and fourth rules of the Cartesian method and the modus operandi of mathematics.
Chains of Reasons
Chains of reasons refers to the deductive modus operandi of mathematics, which establishes connections between ideas. It is the operation of the third and fourth rules of the Cartesian method.
Truth and Doubt
For Descartes, truth is the goal of knowledge and the aim of his philosophy. It can only be reached through reason and the proposed method. The first truth reached is “I think, therefore I am,” and from it, he demonstrates God and then the outside world.
Approach: A statement of which we can say that is true or false.
Doubt: Cartesian doubt is a tool to find a truth that resists any objection. It suggests doubting all reviews to establish something firm and secure. It is a methodical, theoretical, universal (indeed all), and provisional doubt, as it is exceeded upon reaching the first truth, thus differentiating it from skepticism (methodological).
Ideas and Method
Idea(s): An act of thought which has content. According to the reality they represent, they can be innate (the obvious), adventitious (seem to come from external reality, e.g., tree), and factitious (fruit of the imagination, e.g., siren).
Method: A way to achieve a goal. In Descartes, the method is the set of rules proposed for reason to reach true knowledge. It must be simple and applicable to all domains of knowledge and action. The four rules of the Cartesian method are evidence, analysis, synthesis, and review.
Evidence, Clarity, and Distinction
Evidence: The criterion of truth established by Descartes in his first rule of method. It consists of the immediate uptake of truth, and its characteristics are clarity and distinction. This approach is guaranteed with the first truth, the cogito, and because God, being true, cannot allow deception.
Clear/Clarity: A feature, along with distinction, of evidence (the criterion of Cartesian certainty). Knowledge is the presence of an attentive mind and is accepted because all elements are manifested in it.
Different/Distinction: A feature, along with clarity, of the Cartesian criterion of certainty (evidence). An idea separate and distinct from others that cannot be confused with another.
Certainty
Certainty implies security in knowledge and is only possible using reason properly. It is opposed to doubt and opinion. In Descartes, certainty is synonymous with evidence.
Analysis and Synthesis
Analysis: A method used by mathematicians for solving a problem using equations. Descartes generalized it and established it as the second rule of his method, dividing complex ideas into their simplest elements to be taken up by intuition.
Synthesis: The third rule of the method, to move from the simple to the complex by means of deduction.
Thinking and Substance
Think: An attribute of the self or soul whose content is ideas. According to Descartes, one can doubt what one thinks, but not the fact of thinking. This leads him, through doubt and with absolute evidence, to the first truth: “I think, therefore I am.”
Substance: This concept is key in Aristotelian and scholastic philosophy. Descartes defines substance as that which does not need anything else to exist (independence). According to this, only God would be a substance, but Descartes also admits thinking substance (soul) and extended substance (body), which are finite. Although having been created by God, they are mutually independent.
Existence and God
Existence: A characteristic of God that Descartes derives from His very essence, perfection (just as from the triangle, we conclude that the angles add up to 180 degrees, or from the mountain, we derive the idea of a valley). If God is perfect, we have to reckon with His existence since otherwise, He would be lacking something and therefore would be imperfect. This is called the ontological argument, or the third test that Descartes uses to prove the existence of God. The rest of us are not perfect; our existence is not necessary, but we have been created.
God is the infinite substance characterized by perfection, infinity, immutability, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence, etc. Descartes proves His existence through three tests: the test of the innate idea (obvious), causality, and the ontological argument.
To be perfect: A fundamental attribute of the infinite substance, God. This idea is presented to me innately, thinking of being a proof of God’s existence. Also, the perfection of God guarantees the authenticity of everything we think because we cannot deceive.
Intelligent Nature, Soul, and Body
Intelligent Nature: This refers to Descartes’ thinking substance, the soul, as distinct from the body and characterized by freedom.
Soul: The substance or “I” that, along with the body, forms human nature. This substance represents the first truth reached by Descartes (“I think, therefore I am”), and its essential attributes or properties are thought and freedom.
Body: The extended substance that, along with the thinking substance, shapes Descartes’ anthropological dualism. It is independent of the soul, and mechanism (machine) is used to explain corporeal reality.
Mechanism and Freedom
Mechanism: A doctrine that allows only quantity, extent, and local motion in the explanation of natural phenomena, denying the existence of any purpose. Descartes explains extended substance from a mechanistic perspective.
Freedom: For Descartes, freedom is an innate idea, a way of being of the thinking substance, which represents the perfection of human beings. It is a property of the will, which is not indifference but the ability to choose what understanding presents to me.