RENE DESCARTES

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Abstract

The theory of knowledge and analytical method advanced by the French philosopher Rene Descartes is often summed up in the famous phrase, Cogito ergo sum- “I think, therefore I am.” While this phrase does express the final step in his systematic process of “doubting everything,” it is a gross over-simplification of Descartes' methods. Descartes did use systematic doubt to find the starting point for his theory of knowledge, but his other philosophical inquiries involved several different methods of doubting, from simply imagining that which is contradictory, to carrying logical postulates to absurd conclusions, to the more traditional methods of testing syllogisms and analyzing proofs. Almost all things should be doubted, but Descartes introduces his method of radical doubt. His radical doubt is the method of not accepting anything as true unless it hits you as distinctively true. There is no need to doubt every individual opinion, we only need to undermine the foundations and attack the principles. The research is done to analyze and identify the works done by a renowned philosopher, Rene Descartes, in philosophy and other sciences.

Table of Contents

Abstract1

Thesis Statement4

Introduction4

I think therefore I am5

The Unity of Knowledge6

Reception and legacy of Cartesianism7

The Cartesian Project: the Search for a Universal Science7

The Discourse on Method (1637)8

Meditations on First Philosophy (1641)9

The Principles of Philosophy (1644)9

The Concept of Method11

Rules for the Direction of the Mind11

The Discourse on Method (1637)12

Intuition and Deduction12

Philosophy of Rene Descartes15

Purpose and Method of Philosophy15

Conquest of Truth15

The Four Precepts16

Physical and Metaphysical18

Metaphysics18

Methodical Doubt18

The Essence of the Soul19

God20

The Existence of God20

The Essence of God21

Meditations Metaphysical21

The Meditations (1641)22

Meditations on First Philosophy22

The Methodical Doubt23

Morality25

Psychophysiology25

The Union of Soul and Body25

Passion and Commitment26

The outline of a moral27

The influence of Cartesianism28

End Notes30

Rene Descartes

Thesis Statement

How philosophy of Rene Descartes contributed in the field of philosophy?

Introduction

Born in The Hague, in the French province of Touraine, Ren Descartes was formed at the Jesuit college of Le Fleche, where he received a solid classical education and science. Obtained a degree in law at Poitiers, in 1618, he enlisted in the army of Maurice of Nassau, beginning a series of trips that will take him to Holland (where he befriended Isaac Beeckman), Germany and Bohemia. When he returned home in 1622, often stayed in Paris, attending cultural circle gathered around Mersenne. In the spring of 1629, he left for the Netherlands, where he lived, living in various cities, about twenty years, until 1649. In October of that year, having been invited to teach philosophy to Queen Christina, went to Sweden. The Swedish experience lasted only a few months after a short illness, he died in February 1650 Descartes, in fact, in Stockholm, due to pneumonia.

Rene Descartes is one of the greatest protagonists of culture, philosophy and science of the West. Processor of a system of thought that marked an era, began giving a new course in philosophy, he was, at the same time, a mathematical genius, which was responsible for the creation of a critical branch of modern mathematics: analytic ...