René Descartes: Biography and Philosophy

• René Descartes wrote a biography and studied modern rationalism.
• He searched for certainties and the steps of methodical doubt.
• Descartes viewed humans as rational beings, specifically the "thinking self" (moi pensant).
• He rebuilt knowledge on certain bases, exploring the body-spirit relationship.
• Descartes developed the animal-machine theory and its relation to animal spirits and human passions.

Descartes - Biography

• Born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye, France, Descartes came from a wealthy family.
• His father, Joachim, served as a counselor to the King in the Parliament of Rennes, Brittany.
• At 10, Descartes boarded at the Jesuit college of La Flèche, regarded as "one of the most famous schools in Europe."
• He studied multiple languages, including Latin and Greek, along with sciences such as history, law, geography, physics, astronomy, and mathematics, based on ancient texts.
• Religious education and physical training (fencing, dancing) were integral parts of his schooling.
• After earning a law degree, Descartes joined the army of Prince Nassau in the Netherlands in 1618.
• During this calm period, he studied human behavior and mathematics.
• Descartes did not participate in battles, and concentrated on mathematics due to its certainty and clarity.
• On the night of November 10-11, 1619, Descartes had three dreams.
• He interpreted these dreams as revealing the foundations of an admirable science to unify all knowledge.
• He described them and their interpretations in his "Meditations on Metaphysics."
• At 26, a family inheritance gave Descartes the means to devote his life to reflection, without needing to work.
• He traveled across Europe.
• In Italy by late 1623, he witnessed the Inquisition's purges, including the burning of people accused of heresy.
• In 1628, Descartes left France for the Netherlands due to its turbulent political climate.
• For 20 years, he moved among cities like Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, and Utrecht.
• During this time, Descartes focused on physics, mathematics, and optics.
• He also studied living organisms through animal dissections to understand the human body better.
• In 1649, Descartes traveled to the Swedish court at the invitation of Queen Christina, who wanted to learn philosophy.
• Descartes was reluctant but felt he could not refuse.
• Facing freezing winter conditions and early morning teaching duties, Descartes succumbed to pneumonia in Stockholm on February 11, 1650, at 53.

Modern Rationalism

• Rationalism is a doctrine that dictates all certain knowledge comes from reason and reasoning
• Reason is the source of all knowledge
• Rationalism states, the human mind can form concepts and rational principles.
• These allow one to explain things.
• Descartes rejected blind faith in the Church and the authority of tradition.
• He aimed to break free from past influences and establish philosophy on new bases.
• He sought to make a clean break from the past, asserting reason should be the sole recognized authority in matters of knowledge.
• This idea represented a significant revolution in the 17th century, known as the scientific revolution.
• Remise en question integrates into the developing view of nature and humans in the 17th century.
• Descartes (1596-1650) is considered the founder of modern rationalism.
• Descartes assigned the power to know to the mind/reason.
• Certain and evident principles are required for knowlege
• Descartes originated the sovereignty of individual reason!
• Descartes broke with the scholastic mindset of the Middle Ages.
• The spirit of the Middle Ages protected the Aristotelian tradition.
• The spirit of the Middle Ages sustained the theology of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Medieval philosophy sought to rationally ground Christian theological teachings.
• It tried to think about God, humans, and the world.
• Philosophy accomplished this by balancing reason with Catholic doctrine.
• Philosophers attempted to reconcile the two.
• The divine supported, and confirmed the word of god within the Bible.
• The medieval world directed people towards the "revealed truths."
• These are dogmas transmitted through the structure of the Church.
• The modern world, directs people to find a new certainty that humanity will find discover methodically by themselves
• Rationality is the method of choice to achieve enlightenment.

In Search of the Truth

• Good sense is the most fairly distributed in the world.
• This means that people have equal power to judge between right and wrong.
• The differences in opinions may come from using different ways of thinking
• Having a good spirit is not enough to have good sense, there must be a principal application to thought.
• Descartes declared that science must be based on philosophical foundations
• Descartes philosophy guaranteed absolute certainly and understood human capacity and nature and their ability to act.
• Human reason is the necessary guide in seeking certainty.
• Reason is a shared capacity that all humans possess.
• Each person can comprehend and know, so long as knowledge is based on a solid foundation.
• Philosophy serves as knowledge tree with metaphysics as the root, physics as the trunk.
• Other sciences branch from the trunk, split into medicine, mechanics, and morals.
• The highest and most perfect moral pre-requiste knowledge exists in other sciences.
• The sciences are the final level of wisdom.
• Metaphysics is the rational investigation that explores the essential nature of existence, the essence of consciousness and everything that may lie beyond physics.
• Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy also known as "first philosophy”.
• Metaphysics deals with the first causes, foundations of reality beyond observation.
• Questions about the origin of the world, origins of conscienceless, or gods are metaphysical.
• Cartesian physics is based on a mechanical and mathematical conception of the world.
• Material reality can be reduced to a single substance, which is measurable dimensions.
• The relationships and movements of bodies are geometric.
• Change happens only through interactions of particles.
• Without form, this physics explains nature via mathematic relations and provides the basis of reason-built science.
• Branches are the other sciences, represented by knowledge
• These sciences come from physics, medicine, and ethics
• The Cartesian method creates these sciences and improve the human condition.
• Through practical application one is able to master themselves through nature.
• The tree symbolizes acquiring a serene life.
• The Cartesian method relies on geometry, where each theorum is listed and organized rigoriously.
• To verify the statement, a numbered list is provided that organizes each step of the process.
• All clear and distinct ideas should be accepted.
• According to Descartes, nothings should leave a point of doubt.
• Descartes tried to build knowledge upon metaphysical foundations, like roots of a tree
• All of the world should be connected in the logic, not in geometric manual
• Legit connections are required.
• The aim is to get back to the source of knowledge and question the validity behind it.
• Every thing that has doubt must be false.

The Steps of Methodical Doubt

• Put everything into doubt
• All feelings have to be doubted
• All reasoning has to be doubted
• The malicious genius is doubted.
• The testimony of the senses is put to doubt by methodical doubt.
• Information is too subjective or relative.
• No guarantee that the sensory perceptions is true
• Humans can be tricked by their senses
• Sensations, are subjective to the current individual.
• Blue in reality may appear something else to the color blind
• A straight light looks bent when light is in the water
• The senses trick you based on habit.
• The world of knowledge (sensible and rational) is struck by uncertainty, has to be considered false.
• As such, there may be an evil genius, no less cunning and deceitful than powerful, who has employed all his industry to deceive me.
• The heaven, the air, the earth, colours, figures, sounds, and all external things, are nothing but illusions and deceptions.
• He uses them to surprise my credulity.
• I will consider myself as having no hands, no eyes, no flesh, no blood, no senses.
• I falsely believe that I have all these things.”

Me, Myself and I

• He cannot that he is doubting
• The moment he thinks, his certitude is there
• Human beings are things that think
• In the most doubtful of thoughts, Descartes cannot doubt his existence
• There is evil genius in their thoughts, while Descartes is thinking
• What you are is determined by the current thought process.
• What I am is what defines a human most
• My identity must not be a body thing
• Its because my soul is what thinks
• The soul is the entire human
• You think therefore you must know that you are

Rebuilding on a Sound Foundation (certain bases)

• Being human is to always think
• Being a thing that thinks means knowing.
• Humans are the most important, as all subjects can think
• In a cartesian world, conscience is available and it relies on them self.
• Responsibility relies on if people think for themself, one can use their own conscienceless.
• Metaphysics allows a rational soul and and body to recognize the universe.

Examples of Rebuilding on Sould Foundations

• To understand how the outside world looks, the example of wax is used by Descartes
• Descarte takes bees to wax and makes a reflection
• The reflection allows the knowledge to diversify and be perceived by the right mind
• Descartes uses this as an example to define the physical self
• The physical self is the same as the other, only using wax
• So, if I know this wax is something, my senses didint tell me that, but instead my reason did
• In the Cartesian world you can have a dual body, but one conscience
• The spirits link toghther one another

Relaying to the physical plane

• All of it has length, width, and everything

Body/Spirit Connection

• The Meditations of Descartes sets up the relationship between body and spirit.
• Cartesian dualism is also set in the relationship
• The body and mind are separate substances
• They think a lot during separation
• The soul sets itself to the mind and decides the free will
• The body has no thought, and does all functions on its own
• Thought and body is defined by human thought
• I’m not human body, bones or flesh but all of it comes together
• You don’t need a body to think as you use prior experiences
• The body is connected through all matter, there force that is within them.

The Mechanics of Movement

• Like an mechanism that's self-moving, the body can still operate on its own even if it is in the human
• The body parts are controlled without the spirit or mind, on its own

The animalistic human

• Animals can do things and are human and the emotions they feel.
• Though animals have senses, humans are are superior based on our actions.
• Animals don't have a conscious.

The interaction between animalistic state and humans

• Each part effects the other constantly.
• As the body cannot change alone, the animal spirit defines humans actions

Physical and spiritual are in the same place

• The same place connects the parts.
• All parts must come together to bring all action.

Human passion

• Result of the animalistic state.
• The affects of the people depends on their feelings.
• To have good passions over bad, one must become well managed.
• Through will, the actions of the body can controlled.

Decartes Today

• Use exact a method to have the process go well
• Defend the cause
• Use math during deduction
• See the results by understanding how to be exact
• Condemn only using what you where given.
• Learn what is right and what can be done.