Summary:
Discusses why Descartes believed that his existence as a thinking being was the only thing of which he could be absolutely certain, and whether he was correct.
Keywords: rationalism, rationalist, philosophy
Descartes was a rationalist, someone who believed that reason as a source of knowledge was superior to and independent of sense perception. He set out to rebuild knowledge with indubitable truths through a systemic doubting experiment. I will be demonstrating his path of reasoning, explaining the conclusion, showing that he was correct by his standards of truth but disagreeing that we need to hold to such standards practically.
Descartes wanted to conclude in unquestionable truths, and therefore held the highest standards in his quest. Knowledge had to be doubtless, based upon universal, one hundred percent correct facts. In order to achieve this he took anything partially or possibly as completely false to 'be on the safe side', so to speak.
He started, then, by analysing his epistemological sources. Firstly, senses sometimes deceive us: a straight stick appears bent when put into water, the world seems to shimmer over the roads on hot days, things appear smaller when further away. Therefore Descartes disregards all sensory information. He then moves on to all the traditional knowledge. Claiming to have witnessed men making mistakes in reasoning (for example, in mathematical calculations), he decides to further discount all existing ideas or arguments. Finally, he declares that the same experiences can be felt whilst awake or asleep, and attributes all his experiences hitherto as illusions.
Just before he plunges into scepticism, however, Descartes discovers a truth - that in order for all his arguments to emerge he must have been thinking. Because of the nature of thought, you cannot doubt that you are thinking; for that is a thought in itself. Even if all the information from his senses concerning the world was falsely fed by an evil demon, the very fact that he was being deceived shows he is some existing thinking thing and exists to be deceived. Therefore Descartes finally reaches a statement of which he can be absolutely certain - Cognito ergo sum, which means "I think, therefore I exist". From here he will say that not all of our thoughts will be illusion because of the benevolence of God.
By his own criteria, then, he is correct that we can only absolutely certain that we are thinking. (Although some philosophers have gone one step further to say that it is too much to say that 'I' am thinking; perhaps that thoughts do not require a thinker, perhaps the 'I', in "I am thinking" is similar to the 'it' in "it is raining".)
However, it is not a standard we need all maintain, and for practical reasons. Even Descartes himself does not recommend for us to do so. We can live our lives built upon reasonably sound beliefs, even if some degree of doubt exists in them. For example, if I am about to cross a deserted road in a country town, there will always be a possibility that a truck may appear and end my life, but it is so insignificant that is not to say that I should not cross. For to adopt Cartesian standards for information we act upon in our daily lives might lead to paranoia.
This is the complete article, containing 514 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
