Philosophy is a very specific branch of science as far as it deals with the whole multitude of events and phenomena that exist in the world. Philosophy is considered to be the cradle of all other sciences as far as in ancient Greece all sciences were thought of as the sub-branches of philosophy. On the whole, philosophy is the science that deals with everything in its general theoretical sense and are the science that explains the basic ideas about human existence.
One of the most famous philosophers of the New Age is the French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes who formulated the principles of the existence of human beings and thinking as the basis for existence. In this paper, I will try to see if the philosophy of Descartes was based on a new scientific method or not and explain my conclusion.
Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) was a famous French philosopher who is considered to be the founder of a Cartesian school in philosophy, a supporter of the deduction method in learning, and the formulator of the co-called “Cartesian Doubt”.
The main areas of his interest were knowledge, methods of its acquiring, reality, and existence. The concept of existence takes one of the central places in Descartes’ philosophy, and the essay “Discourse on Method” develops his thoughts on the topic. The most famous phrase by Descartes is as follows: “I think, therefore I am”. This phrase reflects the major idea of his philosophy – senses are not reliable and thought is the only source of reliable information about reality and the only proof of existence (Descartes, 1637).
Therefore, I think that the hypothesis expressed by Rene Descartes in “Discourse on Method” is based on the new methodology developed by the author and called either “metaphysical doubt” or “methodological skepticism”. This position may be proved by the fact that the method by Descartes has its own stages, theoretical framework, and possible practical implementation. The very name of the method is based on its essence – doubt in everything that is not perceived by one’s mind undoubtedly. The stages of Descartes method are as follows:
- Not to accept anything in what you are not absolutely sure and consider this or that fact scrupulously without prejudice to prove or deny it;
- Divide difficult points into as many sections as necessary to understand and analyze them;
- Arrange one’s thoughts moving from simple to sophisticated so that to make the process of understanding easier;
- Review the phenomena in a general way so that to consider all possible aspects of the phenomenon.
All these stages of the method of methodological skepticism are aimed at one and the only purpose – explain and prove the existence of perfect beings, i. e. of God. Descartes also proves by this method that every person who doubts whether he or she exists actually exists at least because of the existence of the doubt, as the doubt can not exist without the person who doubts. But, a person is the one who feels and as Descartes denies feelings and senses, he calls himself a thinking thing similar to any other if the latter is able of thinking (Descartes, 1637).
To conclude, I should say that the philosophy by Descartes is a rather interesting matter based on the methodology formulated by its author. Descartes examines the issues of existence and proves that he, as well as any other person, exists at least because he thinks and doubts about his existence.
References
Descartes, R. 1637. Discourse on Method.