The Legacy of Descartes Philosophy: Rational Doubt and Modern Thought

Juhansar Juhansar

doi:10.21043/fikrah.v13i1.30632

The Legacy of Descartes Philosophy: Rational Doubt and Modern Thought

Juhansar Juhansar

Abstract

Rene Descartes, through his concept of universal doubt and the famous phrase “cogito ergo sum,” deepened the understanding of epistemology and is still central to both philosophical and scientific discussions. It presents a problem and hence questions examining how relevant Descartes philosophy holds in the current world relationships, such as drifting towards the subjectivity-objectivity theme in epistemology. This study employs qualitative features showcasing the interpretative nature of the analysis using texts of Descartes, including Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, Discours de la Methode, and multiple contemporary critiques. Moreover, distinct conclusions are reached on the various implications of Descartes subjectivism and dualism, functioning towards a more comprehensive epistemology. It turns out that Descartes method and rationalism were equally significant factors that contributed to the emergence of several modern scientific paradigms and epistemological frameworks. Criticism is, however, received, especially on the paradox of error and solipsism. The final analysis of the silico experiment shows Descartes exclusion of nonargumentative elements from epistemological cores. It enables a considerable degree of understanding of the radicalism of the stance towards knowledge validity, the object, and its definition as meaning of consciousness and issues of conscience; several of these indeed require an interdisciplinary approach.

Keywords

Cogito ergo sum, dualism, epistemology, universal doubt.

Full Text:

PDF

References

Ahmadizade, H. (2020). Quasi-Occasionalistic Causation in the Philosophy of Rene Descartes. Journal of Philosophical Theological Research, 22(1), 127–146. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22091/jptr.2020.4906.2219

Alanen, L. (1989). Descartes’s dualism and the philosophy of mind. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 94(3), 391–413. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40903062

Allinson, R. E. (2020). The problem of the external world in Rene Descartes, Edmund Husserl, Immanuel Kant and the evil genius: A perennial problem for philosophers? Dialogue and Universalism, 30(1), 57–66. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5840/du20203014

Astore, R. A. (2021). Flaws of the ‘cogito ergo sum’ and its consequences on Descartes’s Philosophy. Vorágine Revista Interdisciplinaria de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, 3(5), 2–19. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5528234

Bayne, T. (2024). Problems with Unity of Consciousness Arguments for Substance Dualism. The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, 208–225. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119468004_13

Blay, L. (2021). The intellectual history of modernity: Descartes and the philosophy of mind. Springer.

Buchdahl, G. (1963). The Relevance of Descartes’s Philosophy for Modern Philosophy of Science. The British Journal for the History of Science, 1(3), 227–249. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4024922

Buron, P. F. (2024). Michel Foucault: Rene Descartes and the body as machine in the thesis of disciplinary power. Anuario Filosofico, 57(1), 43–70. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15581/009.57.1.002

Cabrera, M. A. B. (2022). “A Necessary Preparative to the Study of Philosophy”: A Positive Appraisal of Descartes’ Universal Doubt. The European Legacy, 27(3–4), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2021.2023980

Charland, L. C. (2021). Rene Descartes on Émotion. Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 5(2), 209–233. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1163/2208522X-02010128

Clatterbaugh, K. C. (1980). Descartes’s Causal Likeness Principle. The Philosophical Review, 89(3), 379–402. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/2184395

Dancy, J. (2022). Descartes and the method of doubt. Oxford University Press.

Descartes, R. (1637). Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences Translated in English by John Veitch (1995). Ilana and Greg Newby.

Descartes, R. (1641a). Meditations On First Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1996. This file is of the 1911 edition of The Philosophical Works of Descartes translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane. Cambridge University Press. https://yale.learningu.org/download/041e9642-df02-4eed-a895-70e472df2ca4/H2665_Descartes%27 Meditations.pdf

Descartes, R. (1641b). Meditations on first philosophy Translated by Moris M. https://www.gutenberg.org

Descartes, R. (1644). Principia philosophiae [Principles of philosophy] by Jonathan Bennett 2017. https://doi.org/https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1644.pdf

Fine, K. (2000). Descartes on mind-body dualism. Oxford University Press.

Fine, K. (2021). Philosophical methods in the Renaissance: Bridging the gap between science and thought. Cambridge University Press.

Fokine, S. (2019). The price of truth: Reciprocity, giving, and generosity in the philosophy of Rene Descartes. Logos (Russian Federation), 29(6), 147–170. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22394/0869-5377-2019-6-147-168

Freitas, V. F. (2024a). Rene Descartes and the Bundle Theory the ‘Objections and Replies.’ Revista de Humanidades de Valparaiso, 27, 19–39. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2024iss27pp19-39

Freitas, V. F. (2024b). The problem of the knowledge of the thinking substance in the Meditations and in the Objections and Replies of Rene Descartes. Sophia (Ecuador), 37, 131–159. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17163/soph.n37.2024.04

Galadí, J. A. (2023). The Mind-Body Problem: An Overview of Proposed Solutions. Logic, Argumentation and Reasoning, 34, 435–467. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46742-4_13

Gallagher, S. (1999). Cognitive science and the Cartesian legacy. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

Guerlac, H. (2017). Descartes and the limits of reason. Yale University Press.

Hasker, W. (2024a). The Case for Emergent Dualism. The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, 61, 61–72. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119468004_4

Hasker, W. (2024b). The Case for Emergent Dualism. The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, 61–72. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119468004_4

Hatfield, G. (2020). The development of Cartesian doubt. Springer International Publishing.

Hernandez, E. R. (2024). Similarities and Divergences in the Philosophical Thought of Plato, Francis Bacon, and Rene Descartes. Salud, Ciencia y Tecnologia - Serie de Conferencias, 3. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.56294/sctconf2024.1230

Hintikka, J. (1962). Cogito ergo sum: Inference or performance. The Philosophical Review, 71(1), 3–32. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/2183678

Juhansar, J. (2021). John Locke: The Construction of Knowledge in the Perspective of Philosophy. Jurnal Filsafat Indonesia, 4(3), 254. https://doi.org/10.23887/jfi.v4i3.39214

Juhansar, J. (2022). Manusia dalam Filsafat Eksistensi Karl Theodor Jaspers. Fikrah: Jurnal Ilmu Aqidah Dan Studi Keagamaan, 10(2), 223–240. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/fikrah.v10i2.14225

Kattsoff, R. (2004). Descartes and the rise of modern philosophy. University Press.

Kenny, A. (2019). Descartes: A study of his philosophy. Oxford University Press.

Kim, J. (2024). Against Cartesian Dualism. The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, 152–167. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119468004_10

Knezic, I. (2023). Anthropological Dualism of Rene Descartes. Acta Iadertina, 20(1), 51–73. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15291/ai.4211

Kopania, J. (2019). Rene Descartes as a Precursor of the Ideology of Transhumanism. Studies in the History of Philosophy, 10(1), 75–103. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.12775/szhf.2019.006

Lee, J. (2022). Cogito ergo sum and modern epistemology: A critical review. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

MacKinnon, L. (2022). The intersection of subjectivity and objectivity in Descartes’ epistemology (Oxford University Press (ed.)).

Maidansky, A., & Maidansky, M. (2023). Saving Philosopher Descartes: Valentin Asmus as a Guardian of Culture. Stud East Eur Thought, 75, 599–612. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-023-09554-w

McMullin, E. (2018). The Renaissance and the rise of scientific method. Harvard University Press.

Nadler, S. (2022). The Many Lives of Rene Descartes. Journal of the History of Ideas, 83(3), 501–522. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2022.0024

Nolan, L. (2022). The Cambridge Descartes Lexicon. Cambridge University Press.

Noreika, A. (2000). The problem of legitimation of the proposition cogito ergo sum. Problemos, 58, 114–120. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15388/Problemos.2000.58.6813

Otaiku, A. I. (2018). Did Rene Descartes have exploding head syndrome? Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14(4), 675–678. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7068

Peretti, F. X. D. (2022). For a deflationary reading of Cartesian doubt. Dialogue-Canadian Philosophical Review, 61(3), 465–491. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0012217322000427

Popovic, U. (2024). Descartes and Spinoza on ‘the Most True’ of All Ideas. Arhe, 19(38), 207–223. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.19090/arhe.2022.38.207-223

Porto, C. M. (2024). The science of motion according to Descartes. Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Fisica, 46, 1–18. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9126-RBEF-2024-0013

Roberts, D. (2023). The Cartesian method: Universal doubt in contemporary epistemology. Cambridge University Press.

Russell, B. (2004). History of Western philosophy. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

Sajjad, A. S., Ahad, F. G., & Abdolrasoul, K. (2023). Rene Descartes’s Cogito Argument Reconsidered. Journal of Philosophical Investigations, 16(41), 148–163. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22034/jpiut.2020.39955.2562

Savchuk, V. (2024). Descartes and the Irrational. Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies, 6(2), 301–308. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.46539/gmd.v6i2.514

Shahraki, S. A. (2023). Rene Descartes’s Cogito Argument Reconsidered. Journal of Philosophical Investigations, 16(41), 148–163. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22034/jpiut.2020.39955.2562

Sinokki, J. (2024). Having a Cake and Eating It Too? Direct Realism and Objective Identity in Descartes. Topoi, 43(1), 87–99. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-023-09981-8

Smith, A. (2021). Descartes’ contributions to scientific methodology and epistemology. Wiley-Blackwell.

Sousa, A. C. T. (2023). Between certainty and doubt: Descartes and the second-degree skepticism. Kriterion (Brazil), 155, 545–566. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-512X2023n15511acts

Strazzoni, A. (2024). Descartes on Place and Motion: A Reading through Cartesian Commentaries. Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 47(3), 179–214. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.202300011

Supandi, D., Abdillah, A., Naan, N., & Maman, L. H. (2024). Plurality of Truth in the Study of Hushuli Science (Study of Islamic Scientific Epistemology). Fikrah: Jurnal Ilmu Aqidah Dan Studi Keagamaan, 12(2), 231–248. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/fikrah.v12i2.27768

Swinburne, R. (2024). Cartesian Substance Dualism. The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, 133–152. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119468004_9

Tokic, M. (2024). Unresolved Questions of Descartes’ Doctrine of the Unity of Soul and Body. Filozofska Istrazivanja, 44(3), 515–529. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21464/fi44306

Tweyman, S. (2022). Descartes’ Meditations: New Approaches – Introduction. The European Legacy, 27(3–4), 219–226. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2022.2035071

Wilkerson, E. (2022). Digital epistemology: The relevance of Descartes’ universal doubt. University of California Press.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/fikrah.v13i1.30632

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Username
Password
Remember me