Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes is one of the most significant philosophers who contributed significantly to modern philosophical science. For instance, Descartes’s philosophical views on educations and schooling remain essential and widely discussed until nowadays. In the first part of the present paper, Descartes’s evaluation of education will be reviewed and discussed. Moreover, my schooling system will be evaluated in terms of its value and knowledge of society. In the second part, four rules of logic will be presented and discussed. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated how these rules may help in everyday life.
Descartes and Education
Rene Descartes admitted that school education is an essential part of a person’s socio-biological development. It is impossible to reject schooling, and unfortunately, there are no suitable practical alternatives. Descartes noted that in school, children learn how to socialize and further how to enter adulthood. The philosopher himself attended boarding school at the Jesuit college of Henri IV in La Fleche. Descartes suggested several recommendations for the schooling system, such as introducing ideas of meliorism (“Descartes and Education,” n. d.). He believed that the learning process is an experience, which involves practical experience and thinking process. It is essential to mention that Descartes paid special attention to practical experience rather than theoretical knowledge. Consequently, school education alone is not sufficient to feel confident in a real-life setting.
Concerning my personal schooling experience, it was essential and valuable. I learned being in a group, communicating, problem-solving, and being responsible for myself. Apart from socializing, I received vital academic knowledge for my future university education. However, I should say that education lacked practical wisdom, the same way that Descartes mentioned. We concentrated mostly on theoretical knowledge and seldom on its practical implication. I believe it is a considerable drawback of schooling, and it should be fixed in the near future, as young adults need to learn how to apply the knowledge they get.
Rules of logic
Rene Descartes developed four rules of logic, which help to gain knowledge. The first rule sounds as follows: “Never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such” (“Introduction to Descartes’s method”). This rule implies that it is essential to avoid any prejudice and believe only in that knowledge or facts that are clear to one’s mind. The second principle Descartes suggested is “To divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution” (“Introduction to Descartes’s method”). The following rule is valid for every difficulty in everyday life, whether it is an intellectual dilemma or a daily recurring problem. The third rule sounds as follows: “To conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commenting with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex” (“Introduction to Descartes’s method”). It refers to the process of analysis and synthesis. The last rule is “To make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general that I might be assured that nothing was omitted” (“Introduction to Descartes’s method”). Enumerating allows us to have a road map, which helps to solve complex issues because our memory is often unable to remember too many facts.
Works Cited
“Descartes and Education”. N.d. Web.
“Introduction to Descartes’s method”.Austoaarya.wordpress.com, 2010. Web.