Who was René Descartes - Free Essay Example

Renà © Descartes (1596-1650) was a French scholar and a man of his time. He lived in a period of progress, built up customary perspectives were offering an approach to new revelations in science and distinctive religious viewpoints in Europe People like Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, and Martin Luther were making the cutting edge world. Descartes was a man of his occasions. He was the innovator of explanatory geometry and author of present-day theory. Descartes hoped that knowledge could be given a foundation as sturdy as that which reinforced mathematics. If only knowledge of the world could be as certain as know of geometry. By considering this he grappled with an exceptionally old and troublesome issue; whether it was feasible for anybody to possess knowledge. He used math examples of how this was true. He doubted old beliefs and wondered if any newer ones were true. Descartes is accredited for the thought of rationalism which was important that knowledge could be multiplied without the senses through reason alone. His idealistic philosophy is a reaction to the skepticism that he saw becoming protuberant after the scientific innovations of the clarification. Rationalism is that some or all of our knowledge about our world is gained independently of sense experience, or called, empiricism. Many of the supreme philosophers in history have engaged the rationalist approach to knowledge, most notably Plato and Descartes. For Descartes, the reason is engaged with the majority of our understanding. This is on the grounds that our comprehension of items is nuanced by reason. His technique is first to question everything that he cant be sure of, a procedure that abandons him knowing scarcely anything. Be that as it may, through reason alone he before long reveals what he considers to act naturally clear; certain certainties from which he determines other indubitable recommendations. Along these lines, he attempts to manufacture a structure of learning, similar to an inverted pyramid which lays on a couple rock foundations stones that help support all the others. Descartes technique for doubt is to crush wariness all alone ground. Start by questioning reality of everything, not just the proof of the capabilities and social beliefs however even the central procedure of thinking itself. Descartes soon finds reason to doubt all beliefs on sense experience, arriving at this conclusion via his famous dream argument. There are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep. If any specific truth about the world can endure this extreme skeptical challenge, then it must be truly a certain foundation for knowledge. After this insight, Descartes discovers that his suspicion goes considerably more profound. I cant be sure that every one of my contemplations are not false sensations or thoughts, influencing an outer reality to seem to exist. If I am not sure of this, I cant know anything that I already thought I knew. For Descartes, the assumption is that knowledge requires certainty. It must be very well supported to b e beyond all possible doubt. I feel that Descartes was not an idiot. He just like everyone else should doubt, discern, be reserved, have hesitation, and be suspicious. In todays society more and more people lie which is causing more and more doubt. In the 40s and 50s, you could trust your neighbor and rely on them to watch over your house. Now a days, the only thing that we can trust is cameras because we doubt our neighbors and society. Regarding Descartes, all he was doing was just proving himself that dont take things literally. Its ok to question or have doubt or think outside the box. Just because something says that it is, is it really it? Thats what Descartes was formulating. Therefore, Descartes wanted to know if it was possible for anyone to possess knowledge. Descartes points out that we should break from our past, start over, and search for a new method of knowledge based on reason alone. He would use math and introduce it to philosophy. Descartes had four principles that he based his theory on which were, accept only that which is clear to your mind, break up large problems into smaller ones, go from the simple to the complex and check your work once youre done. Finally, Descartes came up with one of his famous quotes that determines that he can doubt just about everything except for one thing, i.e. that is thinking (since doubting is a form of thinking) He claims: I think, therefore I am (Cogito ergo sum) Rene Descartes. He claimed, that if I were to stop discerning altogether, it would mean that I no longer existed. Since I am a thinker, I am a thinking thing and that would be determined with perfect certainty that I exist.