Examples Of Rene Descartes Claim Of Absolute Certainty

Student: Vladyslav Nozdrachov Student number: 14504637

Methodic doubt is a way of searching for the absolute truth by systematically doubting everything. A way to do this is by categorizing ideas and if any part of an idea or argument may be doubted, then the idea is narrowed down to the point where the problem may lie, if it cannot be proven to be certain then the entire idea or argument in that category is eradicated. The point of this, is to break down all knowledge to their core foundations and by doing this ultimately finding an absolute certainty.

Rene Descartes used methodic doubt to attain an absolute certainty and came to a conclusion
“Cogito, ergo sum” meaning ‘I think, therefore I am”. To achieve this he thought up the deceiving demon,
this supposed demon’s purpose is invoke universal doubt. This demon deceives him in all spheres, the sensations and ideas of the world, or like in the matrix, making Descartes think that there is an external world when in fact there is none. Descartes now is unsure whether any of his beliefs are true therefore making him doubt everything, including his entire existence. His meditations can only be defended in part as they need to be rational and absolute, however there are uncertainties in his meditations and are not fundamentally absolute, one must take into consideration the rationality of the meditation in each case.

Descartes then states that he needs to prove the demon does not exist. In order to do this, he uses methodic doubt and systematically rids of things that he is uncertain of. After getting rid of all his beliefs he then realises that he is thinking. He then realises that you cannot doubt that you are thinking as that would lead to a paradox as doubting that you are thinking is ultimately thinking. Descartes then also realises that the fact that he is thinking means that he also exists as that one cannot doubt that these thoughts come from somewhere.

Descartes now uses his new found knowledge of this certainty “I think, therefore I am” to further find yet another certainty.
This leads into his mind and body dualism idea where he states that he is able to imagine himself without a body but not his body without a mind, thus continuing into his conceivability argument. The conceivability argument is where you can imagine or conceive something for example a person wearing a pair of shoes, it is also possible to conceive somebody not wearing shoes. In this case if I can include an idea where that person or idea may not need that feature in this example the shoes then that person or idea does not need that feature. And since Descartes doesn’t need to include his body in the idea of himself, therefore he doesn’t need his body, but cannot imagine himself without his mind therefore splitting the two. Descartes states that he is a thinking non-physical thing which is completely different to the body which is a non-thinking physical thing as his mind is a collection of ideas and does not exist as an extension as opposed to his body. The ability to conceive a body without a mind is not an impossible feat and the use of methodic doubt in this case is irrational in a
sense.

However Descartes concluded that his mind is separate from his body without actually proving it. He now needs to reveal through methodic doubt that his claims are true. He questions that whether god actually exists. Descartes notes that he is in fact not a perfect being as he capable of making mistakes and because he is imperfect he could not conceive the idea of perfection himself therefore god must be the source of this perfection, as perfection can only come from perfection. “This means I also have the idea of perfection, so I therefore have the idea of God, a supremely perfect being.” Concluding that such a god exists and that God is also a perfect being he states that therefore an all-powerful god would not allow a deceiving demon to exist. This means that his fundamental beliefs are restored. However this argument is an irrational one and therefore undermines the concept of his argument of certainty as he does not conclude that God is a fundamental or certain concept. Arnauld states that “you are not yet certain of the existence of God, and you say that you are not certain of anything. It follows from this that you do not yet clearly and distinctly know that you are a thinking thing, since, on your own admission, that knowledge depends on the clear knowledge of an existing God; and this you have not proved in the passage where you draw the conclusion that you clearly know what you are." (Antoine Arnauld, 124 – 125) Antoine breaks apart Descartes idea that god exists as in order to be sure of the existence of a divine being one must have strong sensory knowledge of the existence of this God. And although the framework for the idea of the existence of god is there, the use of methodic doubt in order to break down the idea of the existence of god was insufficient enough to have a fundamental or absolute certainty that god actually exists.