René Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy

René Descartes was a prominent figure during the early sixteen hundreds whose philosophies continue playing an important role in today’s education systems three hundred years after his death. Among some of Descartes’ greatest contributions are his discoveries in mathematics, physics, psychology, and modern philosophy. Although his verdicts might not always be accurate, he revolutionized and conceived new concepts through is distinctive reflections and rational. Two important works that Descartes published during his course of life were the Meditations on First Philosophy and the Discourse on the Method of Conducting One’s Reason Well and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, more commonly known as Discourse on Method. In the last, Descartes

The philosopher begins by stating that since individuals are not born with fully developed cognitive faculties, they “accept, uncritically, many propositions from parents, teachers, and others whose authority [they] have come to respect” (Curley 735). Therefore, individuals have learned multiple things through predispositions such as teachings and customs failing the capacity to differentiate between truth and falsity. Descartes calls the process of doubting the method of doubt. This method entails dividing a thought into smaller and smaller segments with the intention of find something doubtful about that thought. Even the slightest reason of doubt indicates that the entire thing should be doubted. He writes, “I will stay on this course until I know something certain, or, if nothing else, until I at least know for certain that nothing is certain” (Ariew and Cress 13). However, this problem becomes very complex because Descartes discovers that the only thing he can be certain of is that he is a thinking thing. For if he is thinking or even doubting that he is thinking, that means that he is indeed thinking. The concept that he is a thinking thing leads Descartes to an entirely new thought regarding his existence: because he is thinks, he exists. René Descartes calls this Cogito, Ergo Sum, which translates to I think therefore I

Descartes asks himself “how can mind, which is not spatial, cause a particle of matter to move from one location to another; or how can matter, which is unable to do anything but move in space, produce an idea?” (Lafleur x). The complexity of this questions required Descartes to go through the other meditations until he ultimately had enough sources to make the statement of dualism of body and mind. It is in the fifth and sixth meditations that Descartes discovers that clarity and distinction are key to proving the existence of something. The philosopher states, “everything that we clearly and distinctly understand is true, in exactly the manner in which we understand it” (Ariew and Cress 7). He reaffirms this again stating, “I now know that they can exist, at least insofar as they are the object of pure mathematics, since I clearly and distinctly perceive them” (Ariew and Cress 40). Descartes next approach is to distinguish the body form the mind. While the body is something dividable and extendable, the mind is something invisible and undividable. Unlike the body, the mind has no shape, size, weight, nor divisibility. According to Scott Calef, Descartes borrows the concept of invisibility from Leibniz´ Law of Identity to make the argument of indivisibility (Skirry). This Law argues that two objects are alike only if they are