Descartes' Method of Doubt

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Descartes' Method of Doubt

In this essay I will assess Descartes's employment of his Method of Doubt, as presented in his Meditations on the First Philosophy [Descartes 1641]. I will argue that by implicitly accepting a causal model of perception, Descartes did not apply the Method of Doubt as fully as he could have.

The Method of Doubt

Descartes's principal task in the Meditations was to devise a system that would bring him to the truth. He wanted to build a foundational philosophy; a basic edifice from which all further intellectual enquiry could be built. It was essential that his foundational beliefs were sound. If any one of them were at all in doubt, then it put the credibility of the whole structure of knowledge in jeopardy. Thus, Descartes utilised a method of systematic doubt to weed out those beliefs of which he could not be entirely certain. This approach is called the Method of Doubt, and Descartes likened it to 'that of a man who takes all the apples out of a barrel one by one, inspects them, and then puts the sound ones back' [Williams; p.59].

Descartes's overall method is twofold. Firstly he used the sceptical Method of Doubt. Secondly, he intended a constructive phase whereby he would rebuild the edifice of knowledge based upon the core truths that remain after the employment of the Method of Doubt. However, as Russell points out, 'the constructive part of Descartes's theory of knowledge is much less interesting than the earlier destructive part' [Russell, p.550]. This is because in reconstructing his body of knowledge, Descartes made use of many assumptions that he had not shown to have escaped the fires of the Method of Doubt. 'It uses all sorts of scholastic maxims... No reason is given for acc...

... middle of paper ...

...ding Kant and Husserl.

However, by uncritically holding the causal model of perception as true, Descartes did not apply his Method of Doubt as fully as he could have done. By accepting the causal model of perception, Descartes held on to an unhelpful presupposition of what is meant by the external and internal worlds. This presupposition leads, through the malicious demon argument, to solipsism. By casting doubt on the causal model of perception it is possible to complete the Method of Doubt free of this presupposition.

References

Descartes, R. (1641) Meditations on First Philosophy translated by Veitch, J. (Everyman 1912)

Russell, B. (1946) A History of Western Philosophy (Unwin)

Williams, B. (1978) Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry (Penguin)

Kant, I. (1787) Critique of Pure Reason translated by Norman Kemp Smith (Macmillan 1929)

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