Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

A. Descartes and Classical Philosophy

1. Continuities

2. Discontinuities

B. The Method

1. Mathematics as a paradigm

2. General rules for attaining intellectual virtue

3. Intellectual virtue and truth

C. The Provisional Morality

1. Three interpretations of the provisional morality

2. Three maxims

D. Execution of the method [parallel to Descartes' Meditations]

1. Seven steps: from metaphysical doubt to the foundations of natural science

2. Reprise: intellectual virtue and truth

• 1. Continuities


• Appropriation of the "search for wisdom" motif [pp. 2 & 5]
  
  
• Disdain for rhetoric (oratorical skill) and poetry as vehicles of knowledge [p. 4]. (Actually, Plato is more in agreement here than Aristotle or St. Thomas is.)
  
  
• Distress over the disagreement among philosophers [pp. 5 & 9]
  
  

• 2. Discontinuities
  
  
  • The widespread distribution of "good sense," i.e., the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood in an "ideal" epistemic situation [pp. 1, but note p. 8]. Question: is this ability innate or an achievement?
    
    
  • Optimism that reason can establish all important metaphysical truths if only it employs the correct method [p. 10, last paragraph]
    
    
  • Suspicion of custom, example, and intellectual or epistemic authority as sources of belief [pp. 3 & 7 & 9]
    
    
  • Little emphasis on the moral character of the philosopher
    
    
  • Philosophy as an individualistic rather than a communal enterprise [pp. 5, 6 & 37]
  
  These last three points are closely connected to one another. On the Platonic and Thomistic conceptions of philosophical inquiry, the philosopher operates for the good of the community (in Plato's case the Republic, in St. Thomas's the ecclesial community) and within a social context that (ideally) fosters the affective conditions for self-transcending and self-sacrificing friendship founded upon a rich conception of the common good. The idea is that the pursuit of wisdom will prosper only insofar as rigorous intellectual training and practice are embedded within a well-ordered program of moral and spiritual education consonant with the attainment of complete wisdom. In short, on this view ideal intellectual inquiry presupposes a way of life that depends on and fosters rectitude of affection, where such rectitude is deemed essential for one's having certitude with respect to all the pertinent first principles.  Moreover, the community is diachronic as well as synchronic, and so are its traditions of inquiry.  So one thinks of oneself as engaging in an intellectual enterprise that includes the best thinkers of the past as well as of the present.  The best traditions are also able to incorporate the best of the "outsiders," i.e., intellectuals who are not part of the base community.
  
  Descartes finds this conception of philosophical inquiry oppressive. On his alternative "enlightenment" or "modernist" conception of philosophical inquiry an ideal inquirer, qua inquirer, is a wholly autonomous individual with no steadfast intellectual allegiance to any political, cultural, or religious community and hence with no intellectual loyalty to any historical tradition of inquiry. As Immanuel Kant was to put it later:
  
  "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!"
  
  At least in the context of inquiry, affective ties are deemed impediments to seeing the truth clearly and objectively--where truth is conceived of as accessible to all methodologically competent inquirers. On this account, it is precisely because ideal intellectual inquiry proceeds from principles evident to 'pure' or 'cool' reason alone that it must be free from any explicit or implicit exercise of intellectual authority on the part of non-inquirers.

• 1.Mathematics and the art of building as paradigms [pp. 4, 6-7, & 11]




Building	Mathematics	Philosophy
Foundation	Axioms	Intrinsically indubitable propositions
Ways of building	Rules of inference	Rules of certitude-preserving inference
Superstructure	Theorems	"Extrinsically" indubitable propositions




• 2. General rules for attaining intellectual virtue [p. 10]


a. Never accept anything as true that I do not know evidently to be so.

b. Divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible.

c. Conduct my thoughts in an orderly fashion, moving from what is most simple to what is most complex.

d. Make enumerations so complete and reviews so general as to avoid omitting anything.



• 3.Intellectual virtue and truth


• Analogy: Moral virtue ?---------->? happiness
  
  
• Present Case: Intellectual virtue ?---------->? truth

What's the connection?

• 1. Three interpretations of the provisional morality
  

b. Restricted: The method is meant to apply only to metaphysics and natural science and not to morality and religion

c. Cynical: The method is meant to apply to everything, with the result that religion and conventional morality will be shown to be irrational ....... but I'll get into trouble if I say this out loud!!!

• 2. Three maxims
  
  
(i) Conservatism: Follow law and custom; adhere to moderate opinions; make no vows or lasting commitments [pp. 12-13]

(ii) Decisiveness: Be firm and resolute in my actions [p. 13]

(iii) Stoicism: Try to change my desires and attitudes rather the world [p. 14]

• 1. Seven steps: from metaphysical doubt to the metaphysical foundations of natural science


• STEP ONE: Search for intrinsically indubitable foundations by means of metaphysical doubt [p. 17]


• STEP TWO: Discovery of the Axiom: I exist and am a thinking being [pp. 17-18]


• Corollary 1: I have ideas


• Corollary 2: I am distinct from my body (contrast with St. Thomas)


• STEP THREE: Formulation of a rule connecting intellectual virtue with truth: Whatever I perceive clearly and distinctly is true [p. 18]
  
  
• Corollary:  The free-will solution to the problem of epistemic evil


• STEP FOUR: Proof of the existence of God as the only adequate cause of my idea of God (!!!) [pp. 18-19]


• STEP FIVE: Proof of God's perfection (!!!) [p. 19]


• Interlude: An ontological proof of God's existence and a reply (via the ball of wax) to the above exclamation points. [pp. 19-20]


• STEP SIX: Vindication of the rule (The Cartesian Circle) [pp. 20-21]


• STEP SEVEN: Proof of the existence of material objects (including my own body) [p. 21]
  

• Intellectual virtue and moral virtue: how are they connected?


• The affective dimension of the search for truth