Rene Descartes:
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher
and mathematician who did not trust his own senses. How could he be sure what
was real? How could he be sure he existed? His senses could be tricked and what
he thought could also be deception or manipulation from a higher power so he
came to the conclusion the only thing that could be grounded as fact was the
fact that he was thinking if he was thinking he must exist, so he said. “I
think therefore I am”.
Descartes is the father
of modern philosophy. Descartes was a rationalist and believed in three things
mind, matter, and God. He spent a large amount of time studying the idea of
radical doubt. Radical doubt is a mental concept that means if there is not
enough evidence to support something then you do not need to believe it. This contributed to
his idea of dualism. Dualism is a term used in both the field of philosophy and
psychology, it is a person who believes that the mind and the body are two
separate parts. He believed that the soul was immortal because it was not a
physical thing that could be broken or torn apart while the body was mortal
because it could break and be torn apart.
Descartes was a big believer
in God and free will. One of his reasons as why God exist is that God is
perfect and to be able to be perfect, he must exist. He believed that people
have free will and that how people choose to use that free will is how God
judges us.
Descartes created a method
to perform deductive reasoning that can be used for everything. This method
contains four rules and can be found in two of his books, Rules for the Direction of the Mind and Discourse on Method.
Rule
1: “Never to accept anything for true
which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid
precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than
what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all
grounds of doubt.” -Descartes
Rule 2: “To divide each of the difficulties under
examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its
adequate solution.” -Descartes
Rule3:
“To conduct my thoughts in such order
that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might
ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of
the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects
which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and
sequence.” -Descartes
Rule 4: “To make enumerations so complete, and
reviews so general that I might be assured that nothing was omitted.” -Descartes
Descartes thought that thinking
rationally was the most important thing to be able to do. With rational thinking
one can make accurate decisions, actions, and conclusions.
Work Cited:
“Introduction to
Descartes's Method – 4 Rules.” Exposures of a Nomad, 10 Nov. 2010, faustoaarya.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/introduction-to-descartess-method-4-rules/.
Watson, Richard A. “René
Descartes.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
7 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Descartes.
Quiz:
1. Who said, "I think therefore I am"?
2. What is radical doubt?
3. What is dualism?
4. What was one of the four rules of deductive reasoning?
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you think your senses and thoughts are deceptions?
3. Do you agree with the four rules or do you think there
something more to it?
4. Do you think we have been given free will by a higher power and our being judged by how we use it?
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