Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is credited with the development of the "modern" scientific age. At a very young age he was educated by the Jesuits at the college Henri IV at La Fleche in Anjou where he received instruction in philosophy. In Discourse on Method he writes: " I observed with regard to philosophy that despite being cultivated for many centuries by the best minds, it contained no point which was not disputed and hence doubtful." Descartes left La Fleche in 1614 to study law at Poitiers, and by 1616 he was a licensed attorney. He joined the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau as an unpaid volunteer. Descartes did this, not to fight, but to see the world.

In 1628, the Cardinal de Berulle encouraged Descartes to pursue his attempts to create a scientific method. So he left France for Holland in 1628. There he wrote Rules for the Direction of the Mind. In 1637 Descartes published Discourse on the Method for Conducting One's Reason Rightly and for Searching for Truth in the Sciences. This work contained the outline of the philosophical basis for constructing his new epistemic system. In this work he writes, " Thus my purpose here is not to teach the method that everyone ought to follow in order to conduct his reason correctly, but merely to show how I have tried to conduct mine."

Descartes viewed rhetoric in a manner that was similar to Bacon'sview. For Descartes, rhetoric was relegated to the simple task of communicating principles that are discovered by logic and experimentation. Both Descartes and Bacon agreed with Plato by arguing that rhetoric is not epistemic. Both Bacon and Descartes relied on the "scientific method" to generate knowledge.

Literature was Descartes' first love. At 22 he dreamed that the structure of the universe was logical and mathematical. His goal became to discover these principles. He argued in LeMonde that matter that made up everything in the universe was made of the same type, and therefore their is no distinction between terrestrial and celestial.

For Descartes, if a claim is to count as knowledge, it must be verified and contain no room for doubt. For Descartes, doubting is the means to reach "the rock among the quicksands and mud." Or, in other words, a method to establish the truth of some proposition or claim. Descartes holds that the only thing which can resist doubts is the act of doubting (thinking) itself. Thus, the quotation for which he is most famous: "Cogito Ergo Sum" (I think, therefore I am). In Second Meditation he writes: "Let the demon deceive me as much as he may . .. I am, I exist is certain, so long as it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind." He argues that individuals are more likely to find truth than groups because a group multiplies the possibility of error.

He holds that the "majority is never an indication of truth." Much like your mother saying that, "If everybody jumped off that bridge, are you going to follow?" Descartes wanted a mathematical model of truth and knowledge. He believed that in such a system man could find absolute truth and the ability to test the truth of things. His project was aimed at leading the mind away from the senses because sensual knowledge is deceiving. His ultimate goal is a method which would allow one to find a reliable truth.

Descartes argued that the method we use to find truth is what makes it good. He holds that the investigator must follow their method correctly or the results will be marred and must be viewed with suspicion. For Descartes, the test of truth is clarity. He holds that clarity is the aspect of language use to which we must aspire. However he recognized that one can argue clearly, but still in a circle.

Descartes believed that man can control his thoughts and that language is a neutral vehicle which is suitable for conveying the results of inquiry.

For Descartes, this method of inquiry was to be found in Mathematics. As he writes in Discourse on Method: "I saw that, in the case of logic, its syllogisms and the greater part of its other lessons served more to explain to someone else what one knows, or even . . . to speak without judgement concerning matters about which one is ignorant, than to learn them."