Introduction
The error – discrepancy between two groups of the objects, one of which is the standard, a right answer of a problem, the decision which would lead to the desirable result, and the second – something which is taking place actually. Errors are met in all spheres of human activity. For the analysis of errors set of theories are developed. Many historical examples in which errors have led to catastrophic consequences are known. Many sets of aphorisms are devoted to errors, which are comprehended by philosophers, poets, writers, historians and representatives of many other disciplines. The paper discusses the concept of the error based on the work of the French philosopher René Descartes.
Background
Rene Descartes was born on March, 31st, 1596 in a family of the small office in the far West of France, near to the modern city La Haye en Touraine. He has created a philosophy, which in his life has turned into a dominating work in the philosophical thought of Europe school and a direction, which took his name (Descartes, in Latin – Cartesius) – Cartesian. At the heart of Descartes’ philosophy are the dualism of soul and the body, conceiving and prolonging substances. He identified the matter with an extent (or space), movement reduced to moving of bodies. The unconditional basis of all knowledge, by Descartes, is the direct reliability of consciousness (I think, hence, I exist). He considered the existence of God as a source of the objective importance of human thinking.
Analysis
Descartes analyzes that the ability to judge that was given to him by God, and as he is not willing to deceive him he did not give him the capability when judging properly be delusional. If not this capability, therefore there will not be a possibility to make an error. Descartes considered that the error is not something real that is dependant on God, rather than a defect. Therefore he is not delusional because of some capability given by God, but he can be delusional because the ability to judge what was given by God is not infinite.
The error is not a denial, but merely an inadequacy or lack of knowledge that was supposed to be present. Therefore, it could be assumed that the error is dependable on the degree of knowledge that the person has and the freedom of choice, i.e. the intellect and the will. By intellect alone, only the ideas that could be judged are considered and thus in this context, there is no place for errors. So what is the source for errors? The reason based on Descartes meditations lies in the assumption that the will is more extensive than intelligence, it is not kept in the same borders, like intelligence, but it is extended also on things and matters that the person does not understand; when the will is indifferent to these things, it easily deviates true and good, and thus the person commits errors.
For this reason, the person is capable to achieve by means of attentive repeated deliberation reach steady memoirs every time when there will be a need, and thus to develop a habit not to make errors. Descartes reaching his conclusions about error and truth reached at the same time the proof of God existence as free of errors and mistakes.