Rene Descartes was an important philosopher and mathematician, in addition to having made significant contributions to Physics. His philosophical method introduced more accurate thinking into the field of Philosophy — what made him be considered the first philosopher of the rationalist branch and placed it in a prominent position for the constitution of modern thought. Thanks to the rigor of Descartes' mathematical studies and the creation of his coordinate plan, it is now possible to establish studies of the analytic geometry and of the spatial geometry with greater precision.
Biography
René Descartes was born in Haye, French province, in 1596. Having lost his mother almost a year after his birth, he grew up in the care of his father and a nursemaid. His father was Haye's civil servant and provided a elite education for the son, who, from an early age, had contact with Philosophy, with the Astronomy and with the Math.
Know more:Mathematics and Astronomy, an ancient relationship
Descartes studied in high school
Royal Henry Le Grand, seminar led by Jesuits in the castle ofLa Fleche. At 19 he finished the seminary, and some concerns about the Philosophy taught by Jesuits, of scholastic tradition and essentially Aristotelian, left him thoughtful. When he finished the basic course, he joined the law course at University of Poitiers. At age 22, he earned a bachelor's degree in law, but never practiced law or engaged in a legal career.Upon graduation, Descartes became involved in a military career, having spent more than a year as an enlisted soldier in the Dutch prince's army. Mauritius of Nassau. THE career as a soldier is short, as the philosopher discovered that he was not born for militarism. Nevertheless, its contributions as advisor and military strategist they have been present throughout most of his life, having been closed only when the Frenchman turned 49 years old. This activity was, however, secondary in his life dedicated to Philosophy and Mathematics.
Know more:Dutch invasions in Brazil
Joining the army as a young man revealed to Descartes a personal quest for adventure, which he followed with numerous trips he made throughout Europe. Despite the adventurous spirit, his biographers tell that, since childhood, the thinker was very reserved and avoided socializing, preferring to be alone and sink into his deep thoughts, which made him leave little trace of his personal life.
also with 22 years old started studying Mathematics and he found himself fascinated by the accuracy of that science, something that had already aroused his curiosity since his years at La Flèche. At age 33, Descartes had written a book entitled treatise on the world. The philosopher chose not to publish the manuscript on natural science, which defended a heliocentric thesis, due to the process and conviction experienced by Galileo Galilei.
Know more:Heliocentrism and Geocentrism
In 1637, Descartes publishes Method speech, his most important philosophical work, and, in 1641, he published metaphysical meditations, another great work of his authorship. In 1649, the French thinker accepted the invitation of the queen christina, from Sweden, despite a lot of hesitation. Cristina was an admirer of Cartesian philosophy, and the philosopher sets out to be your advisor.
O severe swedish winter cause a strong pneumonia in Descartes, that dies in 1650. In 1663, the Catholic Church forbids some of its books, in particular metaphysical meditations, for getting into theological issues.
Descartes and Philosophy
Descartes revolutionized modern philosophical thought. His contributions gave rise to the rationalist tradition which is based on the understanding that the rational knowledge is innate to human beings. As Plato, the French philosopher conceived the human being as a being composed of a duality psycho-physical, that is, by a mind or soul (psyche) and by a body.
These elements are designated by Descartes as res cogitans(thinking thing) and extensive res(extensive thing). In this conception, the soul or mind (thinking thing) is the greatest attribute of the human being and your body (large thing) is the soul extension. The body depends on the soul to live just as the soul depends on the body to inhabit the world.
Descartes noted that his Mathematics teachers had a precise and exact method to reach conclusions of reasoning, what the surety guarantee and it did not generate controversy, while its professors of philosophy became involved in quarrels for using their own and different methods. For Descartes, it was not possible to establish a solid Philosophy on shaky ground, making it necessary to establish a accurate method for philosophy.
Read too:Immanuel Kant: biography, theory, quotes and abstract
Main ideas
Reason is innate to human beings, that is, we are already born with rational ideas embedded in our intellect. What differentiates the intelligence of both is the way we use our intelligence.
The knowledge must be clear and distinct. Anything that creates doubt must be removed from the realm of true knowledge.
Philosophical knowledge must be consolidated by a method that guarantees the reliability of what is known.
Rationalism
Descartes' opening words in Method speech point out the first clues for understanding his rationalism. So the philosopher wrote:
Common sense is the best shared thing in the world, because everyone thinks they are so well equipped that even the hardest to settle for anything else don't usually want to have it more than the has. It is not likely that everyone is wrong on this point: rather, it shows that the ability to judge well, and distinguish the true from false, which is properly what is called common sense or reason, is naturally the same in all men; and, thus, that the diversity of our opinions is not due to some being more rational than the others, but only that we conduct our thoughts in different ways and do not consider the same things.i
O rationalism, in addition to being based on innate ideas, it is based on the idea that the knowledge provided by other sources other than the reason can be misleading. This implies that only rational knowledge, resulting from deductions, is clear and distinct. Only the deductive process (used par excellence in Mathematics) can be adopted as a safe and unique means of showing what is known.
When Descartes speaks of “not considering the same things” when we speak of common sense and reason, he means that there must be a precise method for achieving reason and that this method can't be the empirical. In fact, the great source of his disappointment with the scholastic philosophy, which made him break with the tradition Aristotelian, was the settlement of knowledge in various sources, including experience.
To support his theory, the philosopher elaborates a method based, first, on the methodical and hyperbolic doubt. Methodical because it was organized by a method, and hyperbolic because it was exaggerated. The Cartesian method arises in the Modernity a new kind of skepticism: different from hellenic skepticism, Cartesian ideals intended to deny a type of judgment of knowledge in order to arrive at a final and true judgment. For this, it was necessary to deny the "certainties” arising from the experience and everything that was not structurally correct.
The rules for the method are as follows:
Evidence: Never accept something doubtful as true, or just accept clear and distinct forms of knowledge.
Analyze: When facing a philosophical problem, divide it into parts, as many as possible, to make it easier to understand.
Synthesis: Always start by solving the smaller problems, the less complex parts, then moving towards the problems larger, as the joining of multiple parts can solve or provide clues to solving the problem as a whole.
Enumeration: Enumerate all fractional parts and review each step as it is completed, as this makes it easier to identify errors.
The Cartesian Method for Philosophy provides elements for the development of later, more advanced scientific methods.
cogito
The Cartesian method and its methodical and hyperbolic doubt made him come to the cogito, the first strictly true knowledge, obtained through the deduction. These were the steps taken by the philosopher to reach the cogito:
I must doubt everything to attain rigorous knowledge.
By doubting everything, I even doubt myself, my essence and my existence.
When doubting, I'm thinking.
If I think, then I am.
The Cartesian cogito was translated into Portuguese as “I think therefore I am”. However, the sentence originally written, in French, “think now, donc je suis”, can ambiguously indicate essence and status. A reliable translation would be “I think, therefore I am”. It turns out that the second meditation, from the metaphysical meditations, it equates essence and existence, which allows us to translate the cogito so that it provides us with a greater understanding of its meaning.
Disposal Works
We list below the main works of the philosopher René Descartes:
Method speech: Short text and written in French (it was common for intellectuals of the time to write in Latin, which restricted the writing to a learned audience), since Descartes' intention was that his book would reach everyone who shared the rationality. This work presents the Cartesian method, its justifications and its contribution to rationalism.
metaphysical meditations: In this work, the philosopher discusses traditional metaphysical questions, such as the question of the soul and God. Descartes was a Christian, but he modifies the Christian structures by dealing with the soul and the scope of the logos provided by God.
Principles of Philosophy: This work is a kind of manual for providing philosophical knowledge in Jesuit education. Dissatisfied with his scholastic training, the philosopher writes these principles thinking about being able to spread rationalism already in the basic education, in order to train students according to the solid, clear and distinct rational ideas of a rationalist philosophy.
Sentences
"I think therefore I am."
“Common sense is the best shared thing in the world.”
"Many times the things that seemed true to me, when I started to conceive them, became false, when I wanted to put them on paper."
“It's not enough to have a good spirit, the most important thing is to apply it well.”
i DESCARTES, René. Method Discourse. Trans. Paulo Neves and introduction by Denis Lerrer Rosenfield. Porto Alegre: L&PM Editores, 2010, p. 37.
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/rene-descartes.htm
