Does Descartes show how we can have knowledge?

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

By Robert Seery

French philosophiser René Descartes (1596-1650) was seen by many as the father of modern philosophy, best known for saying “Cogito, Ergo Sum” or “I think therefore I am” however he is also the father of the concept of sceptical doubt as well a man who examined things such as God and the human soul

In his six meditations written as a six-day reflection in the manner of ‘the spiritual experiences over time’, Descartes was persistent in examining the concept of sceptical doubt, the nature of the human mind, the existence of God, the ideals of truth and error, the essence material things and the real distinction between the mind and body of man, in this essay we will be focusing however on how Descartes explained the idea of possessing knowledge

On the first day Descartes concerned himself with the method of radical scepticism, doubting everything that should exist or be true such as perception and his senses and even his own existence; Descartes explains this idea by suggesting that the perception of the individual can be tricked, fall victim to misinterpretation and disillusions.

Descartes also introduces the reader to the idea that we are actually dreaming vivid dreams and that what we perceive as existence is actually made up from our experiences and individual beliefs as well as the more playful theory that our perception could be the manipulated by a demon and as a result all our senses even basic ones such as principles of gravity and mathematics could be delusions.

On the second day, Descartes rationalise the existence of the ego, if there is a demon playing tricks on our perceptions, we surely exist to be tricked, or we are deceived by our thoughts we exist to be deceived, this formed the basis of Descartes famous dictum ‘Cogito, Ergo Sum’ or “I think therefore I am”

On the third day Descartes addressed the idea of God, a dangerous idea in the times of heresy and inquisitions.

Descartes believed God was invoked to secure the truth of cogito and of the objects in the world it inhabits, such as all good entity that Descartes held true to exist would not deceive the people who he created and that although we are finite and therefore capable of error especially when we act without knowledge, the world and humanity exists because God exists

Descartes proof of God in this meditation is based on God representing a higher level of reality, namely God himself and that if a finite being can imagine an infinite existing, the aforementioned infinite being placed the idea there to begin with or as Descartes puts it “I should not, however, have the idea of an infinite substance, seeing as I am a finite being, unless it were given it to me by some substance in reality finite”

On his forth day of meditation Descartes expands his concept of the Cogito and the nature of God and begins ...

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On his forth day of meditation Descartes expands his concept of the Cogito and the nature of God and begins to focus on the elements of the Cogito, Will, Knowledge and Imagination, the basic components of the mind and elements that we all posses.

During the forth meditation Descartes points out that these elements are pale reflections of the infinite attributes of God, Descartes then imagines that the normal man is the midway between God and nothingness, being neither nothing or everything.

With such a creator of things we could argue that it is not that perception that fails us rather that knowledge does, if a man drives a car at a high speed it is not because he misjudges his speed or the car performance rather he does not consider the result of pressing the acceleration pad that hard before doing so

On the fifth of the six days, Descartes considers the general properties of material things and their presence in reality by using the notions of length and motion and how they are made of smaller elements, that are smaller and less evident, working together to form a whole but are however not visible on the onset, for example the body is made of organs and limbs yet (without dissection) we do not see these internal organs yet we believe they are there because that is what we are taught or as Descartes put it:

“It appears that the existence can no more be separated from the essence of God than the idea of a mountain from that of a valley, or the equality of it’s three angles to two right angles, from the essence of a [rectilineal] triangle so that it is not less impossible to convince a God, that is, a being supremely perfect, to whom existence is awanting, or who is devoid of a certain perfection, than to conceive of a mountain without a valley”

Descartes used the above argument to craft the ‘Ontological argument’, the argument that if an idea of perfection can enter the human mind then to be truly perfect it would need to also exist in reality and therefore ‘if no greater being than God can be imagined, there must be a God’, this argument to Descartes can be seen as a logical argument for God’s existence

Although on the outset a highly abstract and circuitous piece of reasoning that is based upon the acceptance of certain presuppositions, to the scribe, Descartes it seemed clear and logical.

Descartes follows this up with the all inner, rational premises, what we find as Descartes called them “Clear and distinct” ideas must all be correct regardless if we exist or if we dream, the intellect holds these ideals true in both realms

On the sixth and final day of meditation Descartes separates the conception (or the Intelligo) and the imagination, as an internal set of eyes for the mind and Descartes recognises that although the mind can conceive of such ideas as the concept of a thousand sided shape, unless he can see such a item it can not be true, the imagination provides an argument for a idea that is supported or suppressed by the intelligo that searches for evidence to fulfil the claim.

Descartes also recognises that the mind can receive sensory information and these are generally reliable pieces of information that tell us when we are in pain, hungry, hot cold or tired, however he does back down from his original meditation that the senses can be deceived or misinterpreted but Descartes admits that individual perception of for example a far away object is a different case to an internal feeling of hunger, and therefore these internal ideas could be classified in the pool of the earlier “clear and distinct” ideas.

Descartes is careful to make clear that there are differences between his perceptions and the objects themselves, for example ice produces the feeling of cold in the individual however we do not know if ‘cold’ is an internal property of ice itself.

In the above example the body belongs to this external order experienced through the senses, being a machine of many parts whereas Descartes believed that the individual and their mind was a single undivided entity.

So referring to our original question of “Does Descartes show how we can have knowledge?” we can identify a number of Descartes ideas that indeed do prove that knowledge is indeed an item we can possess

In his first mediation Descartes provides us with the idea of the belief that all knowledge is doubtable and that no idea is ever black and white, Descartes shows that sceptical doubt is not only versatile but useful in observing and considering the world around us, This idea of doubt proves that we have the ability to dissect thoughts and examine them with knowledge, for example “2 + 2 = 4” could be doubted as lunacy as neither “2” or “4” holding any more value than any other symbol we can concoct however with knowledge of concepts like mathematics we can indeed hold the idea of “2+2 = 4” to be true.

During his second meditation, Descartes first admits that there is a realm of human knowledge, the idea of “I think therefore I am” proclaims that there is a mind and with that there is a realm of thought and knowledge, the fact that we are able to think give birth to the idea that the mind has knowledge to form thought, in order to see, we need to know what we see.

In the third day Descartes gives birth to the ideal that knowledge we can not grasp could be imprinted in the mind, however we can say that the same kind of knowledge can given through institutes like schools who teach ideas such as how ‘Element A’ plus ‘Element B’ will equal ‘Compound C’, even though you will not know why, you will know the formula.

In the forth day of mediation Descartes dissects the cogito in to the elements of ‘Will’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Imagination’, these show us that the mind is dependent on all three to function properly, the use of knowledge functions to give use reason, meaning and purpose, imagination to expand on ideas we hold and will in order to put them in to practice. One example of this is the work of Galileo, who had a basic knowledge of astrology, the imagination to theorise that the sun not the earth was the centre of the galaxy and the will that gave him the determination to hold true that belief

The fifth meditation shows us how knowledge we pertain to us will always be true, we maintain that the sky will always be blue, gravity to always hold us to the ground and the air to always be breathable, we also maintain that when we feel tired, hungry or any internal feeling that feeling is always true, this tells us that we have knowledgeable awareness of these feelings and these unwritten beliefs, we know the air is breathable, and that when we are hungry we need to eat.

Descartes on his sixth day of meditation, points out the intelligo and conception, these two ideas suggest the idea of procession of these faculties suggests that we can recognise these objects and items, for example if we see a vicious dog, the imagination provides the idea, “this is a dog” then it recognises the movement of the animal “he is snarling” then the conception pieces the elements together to form the idea, “the dog is vicious”, now this idea suggests that we recognise that it is a dog and that it is vicious, this would mean that the observer has prior knowledge of what a dog and what a dog vicious would appear to be.

So to summarise what Descartes tells us about knowledge is that is if you think, you exist, you know, you comprehend. These pertain that you know you exist, and therefore you have knowledge of your existence. This knowledge, Descartes tells us can be corrupted, misinterpreted or pay victim to a ‘disillusion bringing demon’ but regardless it plays both the role of our stage and actors in life, we base our existence on the knowledge we maintain and we craft and develop this knowledge in to who we are and what we will become.

This knowledge by our ability to admit it’s presence proves not only that it exists but that likewise it is both a powerful and versatile tool, like Descartes we have the ability to challenge what we see, we have the ability to examine what we see on a multi-level scale, an object is not only an object but also a jigsaw of many components that it is made of, this knowledge is the key to all of these so Perhaps rightfully so Descartes is remembered by his maxim “I think therefore I am”, because such knowledge is proof alone of how important knowledge truly is.

Bibliography:

Descartes – A beginners Guide by Kevin O’ Donnell (published Hodder& Stoughton) p25-31

Philosophy – Then and Now by N. Scott Arnold, Theodore M Bendutt and George Graham (Published by Blackwell Publishers)