Rene Descartes

Born: 1596

Died: 1650, at the age of 53

Country of origin: France

Major Books written by Rene Descartes:

• "Discourse on Method" (1637)
  
• "La GÈomÈtrie" (1637)
  
• "Meditations on First Philosophy" (1641) (Also called "Metaphysical meditations")

Cocktail summary of Rene Descartes's main ideas:

Rene Descartes was the so-called Father of modern philosophy. He marks the re-birth of philosophy as an independent discipline in the modern era, when ancient Greek philosophy was rediscovered during the Renaissance in the 16th century. With Descartes the great project of Rationalism was re-started, and the pursuit of pure knowledge, free from any doubt, was resumed.

Philosophy as an independent pursuit had last been practiced by the ancient Greeks over 1,000 years earlier, basically from the 400's BC to around the 1st century AD. This 500-year span of time (roughly) was a brief flicker in human history, in which the pursuit of pure reason was exercised on its own terms. The project essentially came to an end when Greek culture was absorbed by Rome, who valued order over free-thinking, and who adopted the culture of the Greeks but was not receptive to the unbridled questioning of the classical Greek philosophers. From the 1st century onwards, the use of pure Reason in the pursuit of knowledge was never free of the control of other agendas, whether political, religious, or cultural.

There is a common perception that Greek philosophy came to an end with the rise of the Church in Roman society. But Greek philosophy's independent existence came to an end some 300 years prior to the emergence of the Church as a viable force in Roman society, so this assumption is inaccurate. The Church later adopted Rome's use of Reason as a tool in service of other agendas, but it wasn't the author of it.

The first step in de-coupling Reason from Religion happened with the theologian Aquinas in the 13th century, 400 years prior to Descartes. Aquinas argued that humans approach knowledge via 2 paths: Faith and Reason. Since God is the author of both Faith and Reason, they are both valid tools for seekers of truth. This value of Reason by theologians had been held prior to Aquinas, but his unique contribution was his idea that the Fall, as described in Genesis, had affected mankind's moral and religious faculties, but not our Rational faculties. Reason remained "un-Fallen", and it could therefore be used as a compass to guide Faith. If there was any conflict between Faith and Reason, this had to be due to misinterpretations of issues regarding Faith, not due to any limitations of Reason, since Christian doctrine was argued to be totally Reason-able, and Faith was ultimately the guide of Reason.

This mindset would eventually be called "Scholasticism", which had been the dominant method of education from the 1100's up to Descarte's life-time. It used a form of "dialectic" argument, where a question would be asked, then all pros and cons would be argued, based on the Bible and on ancient Greek Philosophy, until a rational answer was produced. The Scholastic method assumed that all knowledge had already been discovered: there was nothing new to be learned. So the task of thinking men was to integrate this completed library of knowledge with Christian doctrine. New ideas, especially ones that contradicted current ones, were not encouraged. This made Decartes' task a bit tricky. New ideas was his passion.

This was a key idea that set the stage for the re-birth of Reason as an "ism" - Rationalism. Aquinas argued that Aristotle was a prime example of the un-Fallen state of Reason, even when practiced by "Pagan" thinkers. Faith in God was not required for Reason to function healthily. He argued that Reason without Faith was incomplete, and could not aprehend objective truth by itself. Faith complemented Reason and, together, they formed a complete tool with which to aquire objective truth. But, by itself, Reason functioned correctly, alhtough incompletely.

His use of Aristotle in Church doctrine also set the stage for the Church adopting the outdated scientific views of the ancient Greeks, like the idea that the earth is the center of the universe. By the time of Descartes this had created an environment in which Reason had been set loose as a force with increasing independence, but in which outdated science now had the official sanction of the Church establishment. With the increasing realization that much of the science of Aristotle was simply wrong, the assumption was that perhaps the religious doctrine surrounding Aristotle might be suspect, showing that the Church's eager embracing of Aristotle was ultimately self-defeating.

Descartes' mission was to complete the separation of Reason from Faith, begun by Aquinas, and to approach all questions of science and objective reality from ground-zero, as it were. The endorsement of Aristotle by the Church had to be rejected, and Reason had to operate purely on its own. But he had to do it quietly. Trying to separate Aristotle from Church doctrine was asking for trouble, as his contemporary Galileo was learning, and Descartes decided to couch his questions in safe language, or simply not to publish certain ideas until after his death.

While Descartes is often seen as a reaction against the dominant Scholasticism of his day, he continued to use the Scholastic method in his writings, approaching questions dialectically by posing a question and then working through all the possible answers towards a rational conclusion. So while he was anti-Scholastic in his rejection of Aristotle, he was being a good Scholastic in continuing to use their basic method of argument.

This ground-zero of modern philosophy was his famous quote, "I think, therefore I am". He was looking for a first principle on which to base all Rationalistic questions. What one fact could everyone agree on, free of any possible doubt, and be universally accepted as an indisputable fact? He argued that our physical senses are unreliable in finding such a fundamental fact, since they are unreliable. Dreams produce very realistic sensations but they aren't "real".

He used the example of wax, which is an idea we form based on the physical properties of all clumps of wax: they possess certain shapes, certain smells, certain textures. But when you put a clump of wax in a fire all of these aspects change. The shape, smell, and texture all change but we still consider it to be wax. It's essential "wax-ness" remains an abstract idea, independent of it's changing physical properties. This is an example of Rationalism - "pure" ideas, independent of sensation - which would become a form of Philosophy that would come to dominate Continental Europe, and be mostly associated with Germany and France. (The other main form of Philosophy, Empiricism, which only deals with ideas aquired through sensation, would come to dominate England).

Descartes conceded that his pure ideas could be the result of an "evil demon" playing tricks on his mind, instead of a benevolent God. So perhaps even pure ideas are suspect. But the one fact he argued was certain was the fact that, since he was thinking about these things at all, he could be certain that he existed. Existence was the foundation that he argued could not be disputed. All else could be wrong, but there had to be someone thinking the wrong thoughts. Wrong or right, he existed. From this foundation of doubt-free certainty he proceded to deduce other true facts, step by step.

Most other Philosophers prior to Descartes applied Reason along with appeals to inherited authority, whether religious, cultural, or political. But Descartes was the first to place his bets entirely on Reason, giving birth to the "ism" of Rationalism. For the next 200 years or so, the monument of Reason would grow in size as others built upon his legacy to try and create a system of rational ideas that could ecompass all questions and all objective facts. It was similar to the modern attempt to create a Grand Unified Theory in science, in which one basic set of ideas could be used to explain all scientific questions.

This effort of Descartes to build all of Philosophy on pure Reason would reach its culmination in the ideas of Hegel, some 200 years later, after which philosophy would move into other directions. But Rationalism as an independent discipline was born with Descartes, and all subsequent philosophers have stood in his long shadow.

Rene Descartes praised & criticized:

• Rene Descartes has long been praised for his role in putting philosophy squarely on the foundation of Reason, independent of any religious, political, or cultural agendas. With Descartes, philosophy was essentially re-born as a discipline in its own right. He has also been praised for his contribution to mathematics, and laying the ground work for future mathematicians like Isaac Newton.
  
  However, he has also been criticized for his method. His separation of Reason from the the Senses also re-introduced the old "Mind Body Problem", in which a dualistic approach to reality is presented, where humans basically consist of a ghost in a machine - a spirit inhabiting a body - with the "interface" between the two never being clear. (This is now often called "Cartesian Dualism"). Just how does the mind control the body? Where is the connection between the two?
  
  This mind-body problem is one of the most lingering problems in the whole history of ideas. Is there a basic difference between the physical realm and the realm of spirit, soul, or mind? Is the physical world made of one substance, and is the spiritual world (or mental world, if there is a further distinction between mind and spirit) made of a different substance? This simple question has produced centuries of answers, from "dualists" like Descartes who argued that they were 2 distinct, dual, realms, and the so-called "monists" who argued that the 2 realms are somehow made of one basic substance ("monist" referring to mono, or one), and that there is no fundamental difference between the 2 in terms of substance. This question had first been asked by the ancient Greeks, and Descartes threw the quesion wide open again. It has still to be answered defintively, as of the 21st century.
  
  With Descartes, the split in philosophy began where Rationalism would focus on pure reason and Empiricism would focus only on knowledge gained by the senses. Rationalism distrusted the senses, since appearances can be deceiving. But Empiricism argued that there is no such thing as a naked idea, and all input into the mind comes only through the senses. This division was launched by Descartes' method.
  
  He also has been criticised for arguing for a strict method of stripping away doubt before arriving at any certainty, but then claiming that his method proved the existence of God. This was inconsistent, since religious faith incorporates lack of mathematical certainty, and Descartes claimed to treat Faith and Reason seperately. But with these concerns aside, Descartes role as the father of modern philosophy is undisputed.

Notable Facts about Rene Descartes:

• Religious affiliation:
  Descartes was the first truly secular philosopher. He never deviated from his core Christian beliefs, remaining a practicing Christian his entire life, but he argued that philosophy had to operate like mathematics did: totally autonomous, and independent of any religious, cultural, or political endorsement or criticism. He believed that any truth uncovered by philosophy would naturally be confirmed by religion. He viewed the 2 pursuits of religion and philosophy as separate spheres of knowledge, both of which fell under the truth of God. Sort of a "separate but equal" approach to knowledge.
  
  Descartes has long been criticized for contributing to the compartmentalization of modern intellectual life, creating a split-personality approach to Truth, with the independence of Rationalism from Religion as contributing to an anti-rational bias in religion, and an anti-religious bias in philosophy. Whereas Religion had dominated Reason in previous centuries, Reason came to dominate Religion in the coming centuries. But Descartes argued for a balance between the two, and his goal was to tilt the scales away from the previous imbalance. He saw no conflict between his Christian faith and philosophy, only a conflict with out-dated doctrine.
  
  Descartes devoted quite a bit of energy to trying to prove God's existence. He used an argument first suggested by St. Anselm, back in the 11th century, which was a type of cause-and-effect argument. The argument goes like this: I have an idea of God in my mind. If you think of this idea as an effect, then there has to be a cause, since effects don't happen by themselves. Since real effects must have real causes, then God must be the real cause of this real idea. Therefore God must exist.
  
  It was a tidy argument, but not one which swayed the masses. His contemporaries usually replied that if you could prove God's existence then there would be no room for faith, so why bother?
  
  
• Descartes was known for being a good dancer and a snappy dresser. He never left his house without wearing his finest clothes, and he always wore a sword on his belt. (This is a fashion-statement that too many modern philosophers have let fall into disuse...)
  
  
• When Descartes was in his mid-30's he started wearing wigs. So the long hair seen in his later portraits is basically a rug covering up his bald spot.
  
  
• Descartes never married. However, in 1635 (when he was 39) he had an illegitimate daughter with a servant-girl named Helena Jans. He named his daughter Francine, but she died of scarlet fever at the age of 5. He said her death was his life's greatest sorrow. According to rumors, Descartes later had a replica made of his daughter out of a doll with movable limbs and which even made sounds that sounded like speaking, a so-called "automaton". He named this creation Francine and he was rumored to have travelled with it.
  
  He later lost his automaton while on a voyage on a boat, when the ship's captain found it and heard it speak and was so scared that he threw it overboard. Philosophers' hobbies are often misunderstood.
  
  
• Like all great philosophers, Descartes never did an honest day's work in his life. He had studied law as a university student for 2 years, but became totally uninterested in the subject. His mother then left him several properties, from whose rent Decartes could live a comfortable, work-free lifestyle. So he dropped his studies, never wrote a resume, and moved to Paris to embark on a life of leisure, travel, and a lot of thinking.
  
  
• While he never had a job, Descartes did join the army. In 1618, at the age of 22, he moved from France to Holland and signed up with the army of the Prince of Orange as an "Officer Without Pay". This meant that he was basically a mercenary who didn't get a salary, but he also never had to do any actual fighting. He also didn't speak any Dutch. Being an officer, he was able to set his own hours and he consistenly slept in every morning till noon. Amazingly, he wrote that he found the army in Holland full of idleness and sloth, which suggests that he may have been the morning-person, compared to his fellow-officers...
  
  After a year of sleeping late for the Dutch Army, Descartes resigned and moved to Bavaria, where he signed up with another army, this time as an officer for the local Duke Maximilian, who was busy fighting Frederick V of Bohemia. These armies, and many others across Europe, were fighting a series of small battles which would later be considered the early years of what later was called the Thirty Years War. In his new post, Descartes resumed his patriotic sleeping, never rising before 11:00 AM, even for the Duke himself. He maintained his talent for avoiding any actual fighting, and claimed to have spent all his time taking long walks and writing in his journal.
  
  
• It was during his service in the Bavarian army that Descartes had his famous vision. He claimed to do most of his philosophy "in a stove", which was a term he never explained, but probably referred to a heated room, since Descartes was sensitive to the slightest chill. (However, since he specifically used the word "stove" and not "heated room", this has been a topic of endless speculation ever since). One day, while sitting in his stove, Descartes was struck by a flash of inspiration, a "vision" as he called it, of the idea that the entire universe could be rationally explained by numbers. He was convinced that Mathematics was the key to understanding the secrets of the Universe.
  
  That same night Descartes had 3 dreams: in the first dream he was walking in a strong wind to Church where someone offered him a melon, in the second dream he sat in a dark room that was struck by lightning which filled the room with many sparks, and in the third dream he saw a dictionary and some poetry in a series of random sequences. Somehow, these dreams about a melon and lightning and books, plus his flash of inspiration the previous day, convinced Descartes that he had seen the Truth, and he set out to create a philosophy based soley on the absolute certainty of mathematics.
  
  As in mathematics, his new philosophy was to allow no ambiguity, only black and white statements, only absolute right or wrong, only yes or no answers. Appealing to any authority such as religion or culture or politics was not allowed. Only ideas which could be totally free of any doubt or ambiguity were allowed before making any deductions to other ideas.
  
  It's ironic that Descartes' effort to create a philosophy based on strict Rationalism was inspired by dreams and a mystical vision of a most irrational nature...
  
  
• Descartes was a restless soul, travelling constantly and never staying too long in any one place. After his vision in the stove, he left Bavaria and signed up with the Hungarian Army (in case they needed a highly-experienced sleeper), but this didn't last long and he spent the next 7 years roaming around Europe like a college-student with a Eurail pass.
  
  
• While Descartes travelled a lot and was never short of money, he never bothered spending any time with his family. He didn't visit his dying father when he was on his death-bed, and he totally ignored his own siblings. There is no record of any animosity between him and his family, so perhaps he was just too preoccupied with his ideas and his stove to bother with things like family.
  
  
• The most persistent criticism of Descartes has been his lingering "mind body problem". Descartes realized this was a problem and he had a creative answer: he suggested that this interface existed in a specific part of the brain - the pineal gland - which he called "the seat of the soul". The pineal gland, a small blob of neurons near the base of the brain, was long thought to serve no specific biological purpose, and during Descartes' life it looked as though it was the only part of the brain that didn't have a right and left hemisphere, like the rest of the brain does. Since it was thought to be unique in this regard, Descartes suggeted that its job was to contain the soul.
  
  This creative idea went unchallenged scientifically for almost 300 years. The pineal gland was one of the last parts of the brain whose function was eventually discovered, in the late 1950's, being to regulate the production of melatonin, which controls sleep cycles. It was also later found to contain the same right-left division as the rest of the brain, though only very subtely and only visible under a microscope. So it was a nice idea, but unfortunately it was wrong.
  
  
• Descartes is also famous for his significant contributions to Mathematics. His most well-known discovery was Analytic Geometry, the integration of geometry with algebra. He came up with the idea of plotting curves and lines on a grid, with coordinates on the grid being defined by an "X axis" and a "Y axis", allowing geometric shapes to be accurately defined by numbers, forming a graph. This idea later became known as a "Cartesian grid", or "Cartesian coordinates", and is now so common that it's taken for granted. But at the time, it was a stunningly original idea.
  
  Prior to his time, the problems of geometry were dealt with independently of algebra, and vice versa. No one had found a rational way to approach geometric problems using algebra, or algebraic problems using geometry. Descartes created the connection and basically joined the 2 fields. This laid the foundation for the later discovery of the Calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. (It was Leibniz who first coined the term "Cartesian grid", in honor of the sleeping philosopher in the stove).
  
  
• Descartes also invented the now-common practice of writing large numbers down in the short-hand method of "power notation", in which a number is expressed as a power of another number. Such as, the number 10,000,000 can be written down as 10⁶. This means that 10 is "raised to the power of 6". The number 10 is multiplied by itself 6 times. The larger the number, the more space this kind of notation saves when writing it down. It saved a lot of notebook-paper, which is important when trying to write Philosophy in a stove, and Descartes was the first person to think of it.
  
  
• One of Descartes' hobbies was "vivisection" - dissecting animals, both dead and alive. He believed that animals were unconscious "automatons" - basically machines - that didn't feel pain. (If an animal screamed it was no different than the squeak of a gear in a motor). So he liked to dissect dead animals to learn about anatomy, and even dissected a few live ones. He once wrote, "I have spent much time on dissection during the last eleven years, and I doubt whether there is a doctor who has made more detailed observations than I." He even once cut out part of the still-beating heart of a living dog, in order to feel how the dog's pulse was affected. All in the name of Philosophy.
  
  Descartes was a vegetarian, although he did eat eggs. But for some reason he would only eat eggs that were at least 10 days old.
  
  
• Descartes died as a result of getting out of bed too early. He had travelled to Sweden in October of 1649 at the invitation of the Swedish Queen Christina, to serve as her private tutor. The Queen was a formidable foe for Descartes, half his age, only 23 years old, standing 5 feet tall, and spoke 6 languages. She had the unphilosophical habit of waking up at 4:00 AM every day, and she ordered her tutoring to begin at 5:00 AM. But Descartes was accustomed to staying in bed till noon, scribbling down philosophical thoughts while in his pajamas. He went to great lengths to avoid exposure to even the slightest chill, but that year Stockholm was experiencing its coldest winter in 60 years. He described Sweden as "that land of bears between rocks and ice".
  
  Getting up that early for walks with the Queen in the dead of winter in the far North proved too much for the Frenchman's constitution, and he died within 4 months of his arrival, of pneumonia in February, 1650 at the ripe old age of 53. Descartes' body was later moved back to France, and he is buried in Paris, in the Latin Quarter of the Left Bank, in the Church of St. Germain des Pres.
  
  The moral of the story: philosophers should be allowed to sleep in as late as they want.
  
  
  

Quotes:

• "Dubito, ergo cogito. Cogito, ergo sum." (I doubt, therefore I think. I think, therefore I am, in Latin.)
  
  
• "The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt."
  
  
• "Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
  
  
• "One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another."
  
  
• "An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?"
  
  
• "I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error."
  
  
• "Thus what I thought I had seen with my eyes, I actually grasped solely with the faculty of judgment, which is in my mind." (Referring to the unreliability of the senses, with pure Reason being the seat of knoweldge)
  
  
  

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