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THE RATIONALIST

THE RATIONALIST. RENE DESCARTES. The S olitary Intellect.

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THE RATIONALIST

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  1. THE RATIONALIST RENE DESCARTES

  2. TheSolitaryIntellect René Descartes wasbornintoanold and respectedfamily in theFrenchprovince of Touraine. Hismotherdied of tuberculosis a yearafterhisbirth, Descartes believed he inherited a frailconstitutionfromher. Hisfatherwas a famouslawyer, whosecareerkepthimawayfrom home. When he wasnineyearsold he wassenttothejesuitCollege at La Fléche, wherehisphysicalweakness and mental strengthwerebothacknowledgethere, he studiedGreek, latin, history, liberal artsscience, mathematics and philosophy in additiontomusic, and dancing.

  3. Aftercompletinghisstudies, Descartes spentthenextfewyears living thelife of a young gentleman, he rodehorses, he was in lovewithmathematics, he earned a degree in civil law. In 1618, when he was 22 yearsold, theThirtyYears´ Warbrokeout, he enlistedtothesurprise of hisfriends. OnNovember 10, 1619, Descartes had a revelationthattransformedhim and changethedirection of Western Philosophy. As he laterwrote, “I remainedthewholedayshut up alone in a stove-heatedroom, where I had complete leisuretooccupy my thoughts”, There, Descartes says, he “discoveredthefoundations of a wonderful new science”.

  4. Thenextnight, full of excitement and anticipationoverhisdiscovery, he hadthreedreams, in one of which he heard a clap of thunder. He tookittobetheSpirit of Truthdescendingtotakepossession of him. Descartes believed he hadbeendivinelyencouragedtoestablish a universal method of reasoning, basedonmathematicalprinciples. Afterthisremarkableexperience, Descartes´ outwardlifeseemedlittlechange. Hisinheritance, firstfromhismother and thenfromhismother, freedhimfromtheneedtomake a living, exceptforhisservants, and during a twenty-yearperiodlived in twentydifferenthouses.

  5. RATIONALISM Rationalismisanepistemological position in whichreasonissaidtobetheprimarysource of allknowledge, superior tosenseevidence. Rationalistsbelievethatabstractreasoning can produce absolutelycertaintruthsaboutnature, existence and thewholereality. Many of thesetruths can bediscoveredwithoutobservation, experiment, orevenexperience. These are calleda priory, orinnate ideas. Torationalists, reason –notempiricalobservation- istheultimate test of truth.

  6. Rationalism: Anepistemological position in whichreasonissaidtobetheprimarysource of allknowledge, superior tosenseevidence. Rationalistsarguethatonlyreason can distinguishrealityfromillusion and givemeaningtoexperience. COGITO, ERGO SUM Thisisthefamous“cogito”, fromthelatinsentenceCogito, ergo sum, meaning I think, therefore I am, thisCartesianinsightmarksthebeginning of themodernworldview. Note thedifferencebetween “Descartes thinks, therefore Descartes exists” and “I think, therefore I exist”, wherethe “I” referstowhoeverspeaksorthinksthesentence.

  7. The cogito mustbeunderstood in thefirstperson. In thatform, itmeets Descartes´ conditionsforbeingutterlyunshakable. No rationalperson can doubthisorherownexistence as a consciousthinkingentity- whilebeingaware of thinkingaboutanything. Descartes interpretsthisto mean thatwhilebodilyexistencemaybe more solid and certainthan ideas, mental existenceisactually more certain.

  8. THE METHOD OF DOUBT Descartes believedthat a mathematically precise methodwastheonlyreliablewaytodiscoverthetruthabouttheuniverse, he proposedto use the new spirit of mathematical rigor to reexamine everything! TheCartesian “I” and MethodicDoubt Descartes castallhisworks in thefirstpersonto describe bothhisconclusions and histhinkingprocess, he wantedtocallourattentiontothereasoningminditself.

  9. As youstudy Descartes´ ideas, don´talwaysinterpretthe “I” as referringto Descartes-allowitalsotorefertoyouwhileyou are readingthewords Descartes wrote. Byoccasionallybecomingthe “I” yourself, you can participate in theconsciousflow of Descartes´ reasoning in a waythat can helpyouevaluatehisarguments as iftheywereyourown. He discoveredmethodicdoubt, whichis a cartesianstrategydeliberatelydoubtingeverythingitispossibletodoubt in theleastdegree, so thatwhatremainswillbeknownwithabsolutecertainty.

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