The philosophy of Rene Descartes is what rationalism came from. This philosopher was also known as a wonderful mathematician. Many thinkers based their reasoning on the thoughts that Descartes once wrote. The Origin of Philosophy is one of his most famous treatises.
First of all, Descartes is famous for having proved the importance of reason in the process of cognition, put forward the theory of born ideas, the doctrine of substances, its modes and attributes. He is also the author of the theory of dualism. Putting forward this theory, he wanted to reconcile idealists and materialists.
Descartes Philosophy
The fact that reason is the basis of knowledge and being, Descartes proved as follows: in the world there are too many phenomena and things whose essence is impossible to understand, this complicates life, but it gives the right to raise doubts about what seems simple and understandable. From this we can conclude that doubts always exist and under any circumstances. Doubt is a property of thought - one who doubts, knows how to think. Only a person who really exists can think , which means that thinking is both the basis of being and cognition. Thinking is the work of the mind. From this we can conclude that it is reason that is the root cause of everything.
In studying the philosophy of being, the philosopher wanted to derive a basic concept that could characterize the whole essence of being. As a result of lengthy reflection, he derives the concept of substance. A substance is something that can exist without outside help - that is, for the existence of a substance, nothing is needed but itself. Only one substance may possess the described quality. It is she who is called God. God is eternal, incomprehensible, omnipotent and is the absolute root cause of everything.
He is the creator who created the world, which also consists of substance. The substances created by him can also exist on their own. They are self-sufficient only in relation to each other, and in relation to God they are derivative.
Descartes' philosophy divides secondary substances into:
- material;
- spiritual.
He also highlights the attributes of both kinds of substance. For the material - this is attraction, for the spiritual - thinking. Descartes' philosophy states that man consists of both spiritual and material substances. In principle, this is what distinguishes him from other living beings. Based on this, the idea of ββdualism, that is, the duality of man, is born. Descartes assures that it makes no sense to look for the answer to the question of what is the root cause: consciousness or matter. Both that, and another are connected only in the person, and as that is dualistic - they simply cannot be a primary cause. They always existed and are different sides of one being. Their relationship is obvious.
Asking questions about knowledge, Descartes makes the main emphasis on the scientific method. He believed that this method was used in mathematics, physics and other sciences, but he was not used in philosophy. In other words, he believed that with his help one could discover something really new. As a scientific method, he used deduction.
Descartes' philosophy contains the doctrine of innate ideas. The whole point is that we gain some knowledge in the process of cognition, but there are also those that are obvious and do not need to be studied or proved. They are called axioms. These axioms may be concepts or propositions. Examples of concepts:
- God;
- soul;
is a number.
Examples of judgments:
- to be and not to be simultaneously impossible;
- the whole is always more than part;
- nothing can come out of nothing.
Note that this philosopher was a supporter of practical, not abstract knowledge. He believed that the nature of man needed to be improved.