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Last week I started this serial and I hope that I will post every week something about philosophy and some interesting questions about this world and our perception of it. Last time I made overture into the 17th century and main philosophical questions of that period. I mentioned Descartes as one of the most important philosophers of 17th century. You can find that post here . Today I will try to explain some of main ideas and questions of his philosophy.

The most known idea of Descartes is famous Cognito ergo sum or I think so I should exist. But before he realized this, he was questining himself about everything around him. Everything was putted in doubt.

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So, what can cause the doubt ?

He realized that we can have doubts even about knowledge that we got through our senses. He said that the senses are sometimes deceptive. However, although we can admit that some of that knowledge can cheat us (for example, if the wood in the water seems to be broken or objects which are far away, seem to look so small), there are some knowledge that we can get through our senses that looks completely safe and secure.

He also asked himself if this whole world could be only a dream. Maybe we are all just dreaming and we do not really have eyes, hands, body, etc. Terrifying isn't it?

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He said to himself that this all can be the truth, but even in that case this type of doubt leaves some knowledge intact. These are knowledge of mathematics and logic. In other words, we can have doubt about the empirical knowledge of the world (which we receive through the sense), but analytical truths, the truths of logic and mathematics, give us only certain principles and they seem to be indisputable. That knowledge doesn’t say anything about existing or not existing world. It gives us only certain principles.

In the next step, Descartes shows us how we can even doubt these truths. He supposed an evil genius, so powerful and clever. Descartes imagined that this evil genius directed his entire effort at deceiving him. This step is usually called a hyperbolic suspicion.


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A truth that cannot be doubted

He asked himself: "What then will be true?" He thought that perhaps the only truth is the fact that nothing is certain. He put in doubt even his own existence. But, at that moment he found the unmistakable truth: “I am, I exist.” His idea was that the person who thinks and doubts should be real for certain. That means: If I can think and doubt, and put in question everything around myself, that means that I do exist. Even if we are just creatures of some evil demon who is playing with us and cheating us, we still do exist. If we do not exist, he would not be able to play with us.

Descartes believed that this has to be true every time we say that inside of our head or at loud. Another way, no matter how much we suspect, we have to exist: otherwise, we could not doubt it. Our existence is manifested in our own suspicion. We can be deceived about the existence of material things. We can also be deceived about dreaming everything or being awake. We can even be deceived about mathematical and logical principles, but we cannot be fooled or doubted about our own existence. This is a privileged truth. This is the only thing that cannot be questioned.

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What is the nature of that ” I” that has to exist?

Descartes believed that every person is a thinking thing. Next question was: what kind of thing? What does the thinking thing do? Those are questions that will be left for the third part of this serial. Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it.

References

Wikipedia (Rene Descartes)

Wikipedia (Cognito ergo sum)
Rene Descartes, Meditations On First Philosophy