The Father of Modern Philosophy - Essay Example

Rene Descartes: The Father of Modern Philosophy Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist who lived between 1596 and 1650. Through his development in thought, he has become known as the founder of many things. He is most often considered as the father of modern philosophy, but he was also the founder of modern day mathematics, inventing the Cartesian coordinate system and analytical geometry and providing his theory of vortices (Ball 1960). He also provided the framework for study of the natural sciences “claiming only that certainty could serve as a basis for knowledge and that he himself had a method for attaining such certainty” (Uzgalis 1997). Although he wrote a book detailing his theories of the natural world, he delayed its publication following Galileo’s confrontation with the church and instead published The Discourse on Method four years later (Uzgalis 1997). In developing these and other ideas, Descartes eventually wrote several books regarding the nature of existence and knowledge, providing us with plenty of material to study and having tremendous influence on those who have come after him. Remembered today primarily as the father of modern philosophy, Descartes introduced a shift in thinking from the empiricist school of thought in which people believed all knowledge ultimately comes to us through our senses to the rationalist school of thought in which it was believed that human reason was the source for all human knowledge. “He developed a dualistic system in which he distinguished radically between mind, the essence of which is thinking, and matter, the essence of which is extension in three dimensions. Descartes’ metaphysical system is intuitionist, derived by reason from innate ideas, but his physics and physiology, based on sensory knowledge, are mechanistic and empiricist” (Watson 2002). To understand how and why Descartes came to be identified as the turning point in modern philosophical thinking, it is necessary to understand how his thinking differed from the philosophers who preceded him as well as how this type of thinking contributed to his fundamental shift from traditional thought. Descartes was known as a mathematician before he ever became known as a philosopher. Although reports indicate he worked as a soldier in his younger years, “It is not known what his duties were exactly, though Baillet suggests that he would have very likely been drawn to what would now be called the Corps of Engineers. This division would have engaged in applied mathematics, designing a variety of structures and machines aimed at protecting and assisting soldiers in battle” (Smith 2003). It has also been argued that a large portion of Descartes’ enlisted life was spent in Breda, which functioned as a military academy for young noblemen, providing him with further opportunity to pursue his applied mathematical interests. “Though there are reasons for thinking that he may have been a soldier, the majority of biographers argue that it is more likely that his duties were oriented more towards education or engineering” (Smith 2003). It was in Breda that Descartes met Isaac Beeckman, a Dutch professor who would prove to have a significant impact on the development of Descartes’ mathematical achievements by providing the impetus for their publication. “Descartes one day had his attention drawn to a placard in the Dutch tongue; … he asked a bystander to interpret it into either French or Latin. The stranger, Isaac Beeckman, principal of the college of Dort, offered to do so into Latin, if the inquirer would bring him a solution of the problem, for the advertisement was one of those challenges which the mathematicians of the age were accustomed to throw down to all corners, daring them to discover a geometrical mystery known as they fancied to themselves alone” (“Descartes” 2004). Through this process, Descartes, guided by Beeckman, “originated analytic geometry, where all of algebra can be given geometrical expression. Like Galileo combining physics and mathematics, this also combined two things that had previously been apart, arithmetic and geometry. The modern world would not be the same without graphs of equations. … So Descartes belongs to this puzzling, mathematical side of science, not to the side concerned with experience” (Ross 1998). Unlike other scientists of his time, Descartes’ passion for mathematics was presumably born of his conviction that it was the “one field where absolute certainty could be found. He also saw it as a means for achieving greater progress in both science and philosophy” (Cline 2006). Understanding that Descartes approached the world from this analytical, logically-based, metaphysical viewpoint, another aspect of Descartes that separated him from the thinkers of his time was his departure from traditional modes of thought in bringing together things that had not been done, or not been done often, in times past. “Before his time, philosophy had been dominated by the method of Scholasticism, which was entirely based on comparing and contrasting the views of recognized authorities” (Vincent 2003). “His philosophy refused to accept the Aristotelian and Scholastic traditions that had dominated philosophical thought throughout the Medieval period; it attempted to fully integrate philosophy with the ‘new sciences’; and Descartes changed the relationship between philosophy and theology. Such new directions of philosophy made Descartes into a revolutionary figure” (Baillet 1693). Instead of simply accepting the methods he’d been taught, Descartes believed “that all natural science must be capable of being unified under mathematics, and that the world must be of such a nature as to admit of mathematical treatment” (Vincent 2003). Rather than working with thought as a separate entity divided from other disciplines such as math and the ‘natural philosophy’ that was the science of the day, Descartes worked instead to bring science together with philosophy. “Unsatisfied with scholastic philosophy and troubled by skepticism of the sort expounded by Montaigne, Descartes soon conceived a comprehensive plan for applying mathematical methods in order to achieve perfect certainty in human knowledge” (Kemerling 2002). “Therefore Descartes proposes a method of thought incorporating the rigor of mathematics but based on intuitive truths about what is real, basic knowledge which could not be wrong (like the axioms of geometry). He calls into question everything that he thinks he has learned through his senses but rests his whole system on the one truth that he cannot doubt, namely, the reality of his own mind and the radical difference between the mental and the physical aspects of the world” (Brians 1998). Being among the first to question the dominant Aristotelian schools of thought that had so dominated academic thought throughout the ages, Descartes was in the unique position of providing an alternative path for philosophy to take. “According to Descartes, the four rules of logic were: to accept as true only those conclusions which were clearly and distinctly known to be true; to divide difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible for their better solution; to conduct thought in order, and to proceed step by step from the simplest and easiest to know, to more complex language; and in every case to take a general view so as to be sure of having omitted nothing” (Kandaswamy n.d.). Reading through these steps, the linkage of thought to mathematical methods of analysis can be clearly traced. “What suggested to Descartes that such a project made sense within the formalist framework was doubtless the stunning intellectual accomplishment represented by his analytic geometry, i.e., the reduction of the classical ‘science of space’ to a series of deductions within the algebraic ‘science of number’. Why should not something analogous be equally feasible for the emerging ‘science of nature’?” (Rosenberg 1998). He was also astute enough to try to appeal to the larger audience in discussing these ideas, thereby becoming the name most associated with these concepts. “Descartes was well aware of his audience, and wrote specifically for the ‘public’, rather than academics. From the outset he wanted to address what he regarded as the out-dated values of medieval thought, and the Discourse sets out his methodology for doing so. From the start he attacks Aristotelian philosophy as providing no clear basis for truth, and sets out to show that the principles of mathematics are the only basis for ‘deductive reasoning’ (‘intuition’ ... ‘analysis’ ... ‘synthesis’ ... making the link from first principles to their consequences)” (Sutcliffe 1968). Although he had several ideas regarding natural processes, these were based upon the concept of the earth rotating around the sun, a premise for which Galileo was placed under house arrest and severe censorship. “Like Galileo, Descartes had accepted and relied on the findings of Copernicus. Descartes was so afraid, he almost burned all his papers but his pride eventually overcame his fear, and in 1641, he published Principles of Philosophy, though it was a shadow of his original work. The World wasnt published until 1664 — 14 years after his death” (Scott 2005). By delaying and restating his original thoughts, Descartes was able to get his main ideas out to the public while he had a chance to answer objections, but in such a way that it did not jeopardize his own freedom or religious loyalties. There are generally two philosophical ideas brought forward by Descartes that are most widely known. These include his method of hyperbolic doubt and his often quoted ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Regarding the method of hyperbolic doubt, “he refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers – but he also refused to accept the obviousness of his own senses. In the search for a foundation for philosophy, whatever could be doubted must be rejected. He resolves to trust only that which is clearly and distinctly seen to be beyond any doubt. In this manner, Descartes peels away the layers of beliefs and opinions that clouded his view of the truth” (Burnham & Fieser 2006). Mathematical concepts had not been applied to the school of philosophy previously because the formalist paradigm of the Socratic-Platonics denied the possibility of empirical knowledge. “On this view, sensory experience can inform us only about appearances, about how things seem. Authentic knowledge (episteme), however, must be of reality. The idea of empirical knowledge, that is, experiential knowledge, is thus intrinsically incoherent. The provenance of knowledge proper, that is, knowledge of the eternal and independent Forms, is reason alone. With regard to the world available to us through the senses, the world of appearances, we can aspire only to opinion (doxa)” (Rosenberg 1998). It was through this thought process of eliminating all knowledge that had even a suspicion of being based on opinion that Descartes arrived at his thought-provoking statement “cogito ergo sum” generally translated as meaning “I think, therefore I am” (Wikipedia contributors 2006). This most often quoted of his statements was published in his book entitled Discourse on Method in 1637. This simple-sounding statement is the result of a discourse in which Descartes calls into question all of the assumptions he’s come to know as a result of the philosophical thought of his day. “I had long before remarked that … it is sometimes necessary to adopt, as if above doubt, opinions which we discern to be highly uncertain” (Descartes, 2001). Through this questioning process, he demonstrates how thought, not observation is really the right foundation for knowledge. “When I considered that the very same thoughts (presentations) which we experience when awake may also be experienced when we are asleep, while there is at that time not one of them true, I supposed that all the objects (presentations) that had ever entered into my mind when awake, had in them no more truth than the illusions of my dreams” (Descartes, 2001). His idea of discovering truths about the world was defined by whether he had a clear and distinct perception of them and that was sufficient for knowledge. However, the idea that knowledge can be defined by a “clear and distinct perception” is foiled by its own dependence on the senses. Descartes argues his way out of this idea by indicating that in order to fool a mind, a mind must first exist. “But there is I know not what being, who is possessed at once of the highest power and the deepest cunning, who is constantly employing all his ingenuity in deceiving me. Doubtless, then, I exist, since I am deceived; and, let him deceive me as he may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be conscious that I am something” (Descartes, 1989). The discussion surrounding this statement as well as the process by which Descartes arrived at this conclusion and the branches of thought that arise from these discussions, has proved to be the foundation upon which most modern philosophical commentary has been focused. “The philosophy of Descartes had a profound impact on the philosophers and theologians of his day” (Woolston 2004). Several of the major thinkers of his day either took up pains to support Descartes’ views or to reject them and prove them false. From these discussions came the branches of thought regarding what made up the human spirit and just how was this connected with the human body. “Descartes’ influence in philosophy cannot be underestimated. The epistemic foundation, presuppositionless systems, the mind/body problem, and the subject/object relationship are issues that haunt philosophy to the present day. In one fell swoop, Descartes split apart you and the external world. Much of later philosophy is spent trying to get these two together somehow” (Davis 1997). In the years that followed, the Empiricists worked to deny any kind of nonmaterial realm “and they denied Descartes’ assertion that there is a distinct substance existing independently from the senses or from the physical world. The Materialists argued that the universe is nothing more than matter in motion moving through space. They maintained that the mind is nothing more than a process of physical phenomena just as breathing and defecating are natural processes, and that there is no warrant for asserting the ‘soul itself’ as existing independently in some realm” (Woolston 2004). Regardless of whether they agree or disagree with Descartes’ original thoughts, processes and premises, though, the fact remains that it is Descartes and the realm of ideas he brought forward that they are basing their arguments upon, thereby underscoring and reinforcing the concept that Descartes is the father of modern philosophy. References Baillet, A. (1693). The Life of Descartes. London: Printed for R. Simpson at the Harp in St. Paul’s Churchyard. Ball, W.W.R. (1960). A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. (4th Ed.). Dover Publications. Brians, P. (18 December 1998). “Rene Descartes: Discourse on Method.” Department of English, University of Washington. Burnham, D. & Fieser, J. (2006). “Rene Descartes: 1590-1650.” The Internet Encyclpedia of Philosophy. The University of Tennessee – Martin. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from Cline, A. (2006). “Rene Descartes Biography: Biographical Profile of Rene Descartes.” About Agnosticism / Atheism. About.com. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from < http://atheism.about.com/od/philosopherbiographies/p/Descartes.htm> Davis, W. (1997). The Rene Descartes Project. Covenant College. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from “Descartes.” (2004). LoveToKnow 1911 Online Encyclopedia. LoveToKnow. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from . Descartes, R. (1989). Meditations on First Philosophy. Trans. John Veitch. New York: Prometheus Books. Descartes, R. (2001). Discourse on Method. Vol. XXXIV, Part 1. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from Kandaswamy, D. (n.d.). The Key to Geometry: A Pair of Perpendicular Lines. New Brunswick: Rutgers Mathematics Department. Kemerling, G. (7 August 2002). “Rene Descartes (1596-1650).” Philosophy Pages. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from < http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/desc.htm> Rosenberg, J.F. (1998). “Descartes’ Skeptical Argument.” Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy. Vol. 1, pp. 209-32. Ross, K.L. (1998). “Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and the Meditations on First Philosophy.” The Beginning of Modern Science. The Proceedings of the Fresian School (4th Ed.). Retrieved 19 March 2006 from Scott, M. (19 November 2005). “Descartes.” Strange Science. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from < http://www.strangescience.net/descartes.htm> Smith, K. (11 March 2003). “Descartes’ Life and Works.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta (Ed.). Retrieved 19 March 2006 from . Sutcliffe, F.E. Introduction to Descartes, R. (1968). Discourse on Method and The Meditations. London: Penguin Books. Uzgalis, B. (1997). “Rene Descartes.” Great Voyages: The History of Western Philosophy from 1492-1776. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. Vincent, J. (2003). “Rene Descartes: 1596-1650.” Island of Freedom. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from < http://www.island-of-freedom.com/DESCARTE.HTM> Watson, R. (2002). “Rene Descartes: 1596-1650.” The Encyclopedia Britannica. Scottsdale, AR: Pearson Software. Wikipedia contributors. (2006). “Cogito ergo sum.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19 March, 2006 from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum> Woolston, C.S. (21 November 2004). “Rene Descartes: Mind vs. Body.” Dynamic Deism. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from Read More