RENÉ

DESCARTES
Philosophy
René Descartes

◦ French Mathematician and philosopher.

◦ Father of modern Philosophy.
◦ Father of Analytical Geometry
◦ Descartes believed all experience is organized
according to laws that are Mathematical.
Contributions

◦ One of the important Mathematicians.

◦ Made lots of very important studied in Mathematics,
both in Algebra and Geometry.
◦ Descartes did not make lots of very important in
Algebra, but surely the most important one is “Rule of
the signs called Cartesian”
Philosophy

His system of thought represents a break away from all former systems
of philosophy, and particularly, away from Aristotle and Aquinas.

Unlike Aristotle, who explained human existence in terms of "prime

matter,“ and saw human beings as single unified entities, Descartes held
that one has a mind and a body, each of which is a separate and distinct
"substance."
Philosophy

Unlike Aquinas, who argued for the tabula Rasa model of the human
mind—a mind that resembles a blank recording device at birth, and
records data from sensory experience—Descartes argued that
humans are born with innate ideas—that exist in the mind at birth
Main theories
Focusing on how people “Know”
Focused on two questions:
◦ What can we know for certain?
◦ And What is the relationship between body and mind?

Developing his theories he used the “Descartes” method

Theories focused on new attention on debate over nature of knowledge “The
Quest “ to know he decide to accept nothing as true he did not clearly
recognize to be so
Main theories
◦ dream argument: he maintained that the dreaming experiences are
indistinguishable from walking experiences
◦ The evil argument: all sensory experiences as well as ideas and thoughts
about reality are planted in people’s minds
◦ “thing that thinks” referred as its conscious
◦ Maintained that human mind could know things independently of physical
reality (power of their own reason
Main theories
◦ Believed that human experience offers no grounds for believing anything
including one’s own body is real
◦ Maintained that all claims to knowledge must be open to challenge
“deductive reasoning to establish this truth and it is used because every
statement must be deduced or derived from pervious statement that
assumed to be true
Responding to – Different from
◦ Hypothetical scenario raised the possibility that reality as people perceive it as illusion
◦ Reason changed the way people thought about questions of science and philosophy
◦ Some things may have influenced Descartes such as the death of his mother when he
was very young, father’s social standing as a member of the minor French nobility,
family’s economic status as prosperous landowners, education by Jesuit priests, who
taught rigorous thinking and use of logic etc.
◦ Idea that knowledge may be subjective rather than rational, objective and universal
◦ Descartes beliefs were similar to Plato’s in many ways
Responding to – Different from
◦ Both believed that ideas are innate and that people can use natural ability to discover these
ideas
◦ Both started by questioning knowledge acquired through sense perception
◦ Plato never doubted the existence of external world. Though he believed that the external world
changes and that people’s perception of it are subject to error, he did not deny that the physical
world exists.
◦ Descartes differs from those of Plato, denied the existence of the physical world
◦ Descartes took the opposite view, focused on thinker and the thinking process rather than
content of thought
◦ Shifted the emphasis of understanding knowledge from content to process
Rationalist or Empiricist
◦ Wrote Rules for the Direction of the mind
Rationalist
◦ Believes that reason without aid of sensory experience provides knowledge of reality
◦ People’s personal perspectives on the world, these perspectives are dictated by factors such as
people’s personal, social, economic and cultural background
◦ Holds the idea of a perceived object is more real than object itself
◦ use of reason alone, without reference to human sense
◦ In his meditation he discounts the value of empirical knowledge, and he claims to have dispensed
all of his previously held notions, at least, for the purpose of his experiment in seeking reliable
knowledge that can be held with certainty
Rationalist or Empiricist
His Four Rules were
1.) Never accept anything except for clear and distinct ideas
2.) Divide each problem into as many parts as are needed to solve it
3.)Order your thoughts from the simple to the complex
4.) Always check thoroughly for oversights
◦ thinking being" as the foundation for all further conclusions
◦ defines this matter in terms of two properties only - extension is space (length,
breadth, depth) and motion