intrroduction to Plato's works

7/29/2019 intrroduction to Plato's works

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INTRODUCTION

Discourse on the Method is Descartes attempt to explain his method of reasoning through even

the most difficult of problems. He illustrates the development of this method through brief

autobiographical sketches interspersed with philosophical arguments. This write up attempts to

do a critical review of DescartesDiscourse on Methods with special reference to Discourse 1 to

5. We will begin with an exposition followed by an evaluation of the discourse. In reviewing

Descartes' discourse, we should remember that what he offers in the Discourse is merely a

summary sketch of the argument he presents in much more detail in the Meditations on First

Philosophy, published some years later. So those who are tempted to make quick objections

should first direct their attention to the later book.

Discourse 1 contains various considerations concerning the sciences. Descartes begins

by saying that everyone possesses good sense, the ability to distinguish truth from fiction.

Therefore, it is not a lack of ability that obstructs people but their failure to follow the correct

path of thought. The use of a method can upgrade an average mind above the rest, and Descartes

considered himself a typical thinker improved by the use of his method. Descartes benefited

from a superior education, but he believed that book learning also clouded his mind. After

leaving school, he set off traveling to learn from the great book of the world with an unclouded

mind. He comes to the conclusion that all people have a natural light that can be obscured by

education and that it is as important to study oneself as it is to study the world.

In part 2 of the Discourse, Descartes contemplates on the idea that the works of individuals are

superior to those conceived by committee. This for him is because an individuals work follows

one plan, with all elements working toward the same end. He considers that the science he

learned as a boy is likely flawed because it consists of the ideas of many different men from


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various eras. Keeping in mind what he has learned of logic, geometry, and algebra, he sets down

the following rules: (1) to never believe anything unless he can prove it himself; (2) to reduce

every problem to its simplest parts; (3) to always be orderly in his thoughts and proceed from the

simplest part to the most difficult; and (4) to always, when solving a problem, create a long chain

of reasoning and leave nothing out. He immediately finds this method effective in solving

problems that he had found too difficult before. Still fearing that his own misconceptions might

be getting in the way of pure reason, he decides to systematically eliminate all his wrong

opinions and use his new method exclusively.

In part 3, Descartes puts forth a provisional moral code to live by while rethinking his views: (1)

to obey the rules and customs of his country and his religion and never take an extreme opinion;

(2) to be decisive and stick with his decisions, even if some doubts linger; (3) to try to change

himself, not the world; and (4) to examine all the professions in the world and try to figure out

what the best one is. Descartes moral rules demonstrate both his distrust of the material world

and his confidence in his minds ability to overcome it.

In relation to part 4 of his Discourse, Descartes offers proofs of the existence of the soul and of

God. Contemplating the nature of dreams and the unreliability of the senses, he becomes aware

of his own process of thinking and realizes it is proof of his existence: I think, therefore I exist

(Cogito ergo sum). He also concludes that the soul is separate from the body based on the

unreliability of the senses as compared with pure reason. His own doubts lead him to believe that

he is imperfect, yet his ability to conceive of perfection indicates that something perfect must

exist outside of himnamely, God. He reasons that all good things in the world must stem from

God, as must all clear and distinct thoughts.


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Finally in part 5, he moves from the discussion of a theory of light to theories about human

anatomy. Descartes considers the fact that animals have many of the same organs as humans yet

lack powers of speech or reason. He takes this difference to be evidence of humankinds

rational soul. He considers the mysterious connection of the soul to the body and concludes

that the soul must have a life outside the body. Therefore it must not die when the body dies.

Because he cannot conceive of a way that the soul could perish or be killed, he is forced to

conclude that the soul is immortal.

STRENGTHS

One strength of Descartes discourse is that Descartes

is able to break away from the Aristotelian tradition.

According to the Aristotelian tradition, the mind proper

what is exclusively "inside the head"is limited to reason

and understanding. Sensory perception, imagination, will,

and so on, make reference to things outside the mind and

so are not purely mental. Rather, they are the link that

connects us to the outside world. According to Aristotle,


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there is no distinction between what I perceive and what

is "out there." Thus, sensory experience gives us direct

and immediate knowledge of objects in the world.

Science, in this worldview, is a matter of taking the

immediate evidence of sensory experience and deducing

certain conclusions from it. The sensory experience is

indubitable, and the deductions are logical, so all

scientific knowledge is based on absolute certainty.

One of Descartes's most significant contributions to the

scientific revolution is his conception of sensory

experience, imagination, and will as being just as much

subjective mental phenomena as reason and

understanding. His systematic doubting questions how it

is that we can be certain about what we perceive.


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Descartes draws a sharp distinction between what our

senses report to us and what is "out there." This re-

conception of the mind shakes the foundations of

Aristotelian scholasticism. If sensory experience is no

longer self-evident, then we can no longer deduce certain

scientific truths from these observations. Essentially,

Descartes makes us sharply aware of what goes into a

scientific observation. It is not a purely neutral and

objective act of seeing the world as it is; it is an

interpretive act that must be undertaken with great care

and circumspection.

The scientific paradigm that we have today owes a great

deal to Descartes. Today, we have taken Descartes's

method one step further. Now, we conclude that we can


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never have absolute certainty in the sciences. All we can

hope for are sound theories that are supported by careful

observations.

Secondly, Descartes thought that learning for

yourself would be better than learning from someone else,

since people tend to have emotional influences. It is

probably true that learning from the source when studying

human behavior is going to be more efficient than

learning from someones interpretation of the source if

you use good judgment yourself. In the case of emotional

observations this is especially obvious because the people

who preach have a tendency to pretend they know more

than they actually do, or try to appear to be better than

they are. In this emotional prejudice the truth can be


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altered from reality, or the source. As Descartes said,

Those who set about giving precepts must esteem

themselves more skillful than those to whom they

advance them. In other words, someone might alter the

truth solely so they could come up with something to say,

while the real truth might not be capable of being

expressed so easily, it can only be observed. Some things

in life are too complicated to express, but however there

are going to be people who believe they can express those

things, even though they cannot accurately do so.

Thirdly, the main purpose of Descartes method of

doubting is to arrive at a certainty or truth. In all his

method of doubting everything around him, he cannot

help but notice that there is one thing that cannot be


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doubted and that is himself. This is because in order for

him to succeed in doubting, he the one doubting has to

exist to do the doubting. With this, he arrives at one truth

and that leads him to say that I think therefore I am. In

the following quotation, Descartes clearly explains his

concept of truth and certainty. I considered in general

what is necessary for a proposition to be true and certain,

for since I had just found one idea which I knew to be true

and certain, I thought that I ought also to understand what

this certitude consisted of. And having noticed that in the

sentence "I think; therefore, I am" there is nothing at all to

assure me that I am speaking the truth, other than that I

see very clearly that in order to think it is necessary to

exist, I judged that I could take as a general rule the point


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that the things which we conceive very clearly and very

distinctly are all true. But that left the single difficulty of

properly noticing which things are the ones we conceive

distinctly. Hence, while he is capable of doubting or

being deceived about nature around him (including his

own body), he has something within him, the "I", which

he identifies with the soul, the existence of which is for

him absolutely certain, because, even in the process of

doubting everything, he cannot deny that he is thinking.

Finally, in the Discourse, Descartes proposes the

important consequences for the vital role mathematics

must play in our understanding of nature. For the clarity

and directness which, thanks to God, reveal the truth to us

are, above all, conveyed in mathematical deductions.


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Hence, this Discourse launches the strong demand that

modern science must follow mathematic logic, and the

truth of its claims emerges from the mathematic

foundations upon which those are based. Science, in

other words, needs to rely upon equations rather than

verses cited from scripture or traditional interpretations of

Aristotle.

This emphasis is significantly different from early 17th

century science in England, where, under the energetic

leadership of Francis Bacon, the stress is much more on

experimental evidence, the collection of observed facts,

and the inductions one might draw from repeated

observation and testing. And for some time, there was a

lively dispute between English science (based on


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experiments) and Continental science (based on

mathematics). In fact, however, one should not over-

emphasize these differences. Descartes makes clear in the

Discourse how important experiments are, and Bacon

repeatedly called attention to the imperfections of sense

experience.

WEAKNESSES

Though his philosophy of science may be a bit askew, the philosophical method

Descartes uses in part four of the Discourse has proven extremely valuable. His method of

skeptical doubt has raised important philosophical questions concerning how we can be

certain of, or even know, anything at all. His re-conception of what the mind is has largely

defined the shape of Western psychology and philosophy ever since. His assertion that he is

essentially a thinking thing and that his mind is distinct from his body has also raised a

number of important philosophical questions: what is my relationship with my mind? What is

my relationship with my body? If they are distinct, what is the causal connection between the


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two? Thus Descartes fails to give an account of how the mind and the body interact with each

other.

Also, if Descartes argues that the truth of propositions based on sensation is naturally

probabilistic and the propositions therefore are doubtful premises when used in arguments,

what of his proposition about the existence of a perfect being based on his own sensation of

his existence I think therefore I am? Inferring from this statement, one cannot help but

realize that Descartes defeats his own argument.

Again, in his Discourse 4, Descartes describes the mind and God as substances. The bone

of contention here is if a substance is a thing requiring nothing else in order to exist and God

is a substance whose existence is his essence, then how can the mind be said to be a

substance when it requires Gods concurrence in order to exist?

Lastly, also in part 4 of Descartes Discourse, he equates his idea of a perfect mind to

God. His own doubts lead him to believe that he is imperfect, yet his ability to conceive of

perfection indicates that something perfect must exist outside of himnamely, God. He

reasons that all good things in the world must stem from God, as must all clear and distinct

thoughts. One cannot help but wonder the relationship that exists between a perfect mind and

God. How does Descartes connects his idea of a perfect mind to God? Could this perfect

mind have not been something else other than God? What grounds does Descartes stands on

to make his claim that this perfect mind he is talking about is God?

CONCLUSION


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To sum up, it will be possible to observe that, Descartes advocates that we desist from

building on what others have already talked about and set out to do our discoveries and come up

with our own ideas. In as much as this sounds the best option for mankind, it is however

impossible to abide by since it is always through what we have been exposed to that gives us

better ideas to build on what we have already learnt. This is to say that his advice or proposal

works perfectly in theory but then in the reality, it is very difficult to adopt. This however is not

to say that his work is bogus. In fact if one were seeking to select one text which first ushers in

the modern age, one would have to consider Descartes' Discourse on Method, as a uniquely

qualified selection. For in this relatively short work Descartes announces an agenda which

marks a dramatic and decisive break with past traditions, lays down a project which became the

central concern of modern Western civilization and in the process, sets on the table the most

important modern metaphor shaping our attempts to understand nature and ourselves. It's no

accident that Rene Descartes has so often been hailed as the first and greatest modern thinker.

REFENCES

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST

FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND PHILOSOPHY

PHL 304: EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY


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GROUP MEMBERS

AR/BAA/09/0088

AR/BAA/09/

AR/BAA/09/

AR/BAA/09/

QUESTION;

DISCUSS RENE DESCARTES DISCOURSE ON METHOD PAYING ATTENTION TO

DISCOURSES 1 TO 5.

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intrroduction to Plato's works