René Descartes was a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher of the 17th century who brought revolutionary ideas regarding human existence and the truth of knowledge. What is more, his works became the base for philosophy and are quoted and evaluated even today. Many believe he was the rationalist who promoted skepticism since he proposed the concept of doubting everything; however, he was probably one of the first philosophers in history to challenge his time’s skeptics. He wrote his work on doubts called Meditations on the First Philosophy, where he refuted skeptics’ approaches who relied on the materiality of things to prove their knowledge. He justified himself with his idea that people cannot trust their senses to check the actuality of their assumptions. Descartes then based his argumentations on inward thinking rather than the external world, which he found to be doubtful.
The famous philosopher was one of the most prominent individuals who were against probabilistic approaches and opinions. He claimed every notion should be questioned and proved with evidence. That is why many believe Descartes was a determined skeptic. Despite this, it seems his works opposed skeptical ideas since he did not rely on sciences when he introduced his version of doubting. He focused on inner reasoning and intuition instead of finding confidence in external matters.
The faultiness of things made the philosopher doubt the reality of the experience he had at any time. He started his work by telling about the cases beginning from his early childhood continuing to adulthood that he believed to be the truth but turned out to be wrong. For instance, Descartes says that he often had dreams, which he thought to be a reality until he woke up. Once, he had a very realistic dream of him sitting and reading a paper near the fire when he was asleep on his bed (Descartes 7). The theorist implied he could feel the warmth of the fire, see it and hear the sounds it makes, and feel the texture of the paper he was holding (Descartes 14). That is why he concluded that people should not place confidence in their senses. All the skeptics of that period built their hypotheses from things they could see, touch, hear, smell, or taste. As a result, Descartes’s idea opposed their methodology in proving things.
Furthermore, Descartes deduced that his ability to think and the fact he was thinking at the moment of writing his Meditations verify his existence. Even though he doubted human sensations and the actual presence of a physiological body, he did not doubt his existence as a mind or entity that can think. The scientist’s most well-known and cited phrase, “I think; therefore, I am,” signifies that thoughts about existence themselves lead to the confirmation of a person’s existence. According to Descartes, saying or thinking about the words like “I am,” “I exist,” or “I think” illustrates the presence of the human who pronounces or at least perceives them (Descartes 9). Hence, the only thing Descartes could be sure about was the fact of his thinking and “living”. This view helped him to move to other concepts that he could refute or acknowledge later.
The philosopher doubted all the composite sciences such as physics, chemistry, or physiology since they hardly relied on the study of full objects. Despite this, he believed in the existence of studies such as geometry. In his work, Descartes says, “and, truth to say, there are not so many in the world who are fitted for metaphysical speculations as there are for those of Geometry” (2). He stated that he could always imagine any shape and size without sticking them to a particular matter. If the mind can form a shape like a triangle, then the triangle that serves as a fundamental construct for many composite things must be existent (Descartes 23). In this manner, he assumed the presence of simple parts such as shape, size, and quantity.
The skeptics always doubted the beliefs of religious representatives regarding the existence of divinity and spirits. On the contrary, Descartes was one of the individuals to support the concept of all-mighty God. He stated that if he and other people existed because they could think, then there must have been someone who produced and created these thoughts. Any human being has innate ideas about material objects starting from their birth. Besides, Descartes talked about him having ideas about the creator being omnipotent and omnipresent. There was no way he made up those descriptions out of his mind. The conjectures on the characteristics of a deity are supposed to have their origin. Thus, according to the philosopher, if God put these ideas into people’s minds, then that means that God exists (Descartes 21). It was important for the scientist to examine the creator’s existence, and his deep long thoughts brought him into the confirmation of someone’s presence, which put the very thoughts into him.
Additionally, the whole Meditations on the First Philosophy is almost entirely devoted to Descartes trying to prove that someone produced all innate ideas. He even negatively commented on atheists who denied God’s existence and says they could not provide any evidence for their claims (Descartes 3). At the very beginning of his text, he states, “I have always considered that the two questions respecting God and the Soul were the chiefs of those that ought to be demonstrated by philosophical rather than theological argument” (Descartes 1). This line presents his view on the importance of knowledge regarding the spiritual world in formulating philosophy. It was substantial for him to find the truth about reality and the reliable ways that people can use to analyze both basic and complex approaches.
To sum up, as Descartes started questioning the accuracy of the standard techniques to test the rationale, it became essential for him to dig into the assumption to verify the existence of the perceived world and humanity itself. He is often recognized as a skeptic for his yearn to find evidence for any theory even though his assumptions refute the core of skepticism of the 17th century. The principle of dreaming led the philosopher to doubt the assurance of senses. The senses were the foundation for reasoning the existence of anything for skeptics. Thus, Descartes came against their visions and was convinced of God’s existence. The scientist concluded that the fact he was thinking and doubting proved him to be existent. Subsequently, he then deduced there must be the creator who produced these thoughts into his mind. Descartes’s progressive ideas caused humanity to revise the logic and develop one of the most critical topics of philosophy.
Work Cited
Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated by Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1996. E-book. Web.