Preliminary Interpretation of Descartes' Meditations

4568 Words10 Pages

Preliminary Interpretation of Descartes' Meditations René Descartes was a revolutionary figure in the 17th century during the renaissance period, at a time when the way people viewed the world was changing dramatically. In the past people had described things using a mixture of colour, hot, cold, sweet tasting, hard (secondary qualities) and distance, velocity, time, mass and acceleration (primary qualities). But in a time of dramatic change, mathematical science was, through mathmaticalised theories and predictions of measurable quantities proving primary qualities to be more reliable and efficient than secondary qualities. A now scientific, world seen predominantly by primary qualities left no place for secondary qualities. Descartes was in the forefront of renaissance maths, natural philosophy (physics) and wrote many books on geometry and astronomy among many other subjects. However in his book 'Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings' he attempts to maintain his place as a mathematical scientist yet find a place for the secondary qualities, afraid that science will sweep them away. The place he finds for these secondary qualities is as part of the thinking substance. Descartes begins the first meditation of 'Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings' by introducing reasons why we can doubt everything which we have come to believe, even those things which we seem most sure are correct. "Some years ago I noticed how many false things I had accepted as true in my childhood, and how doubtful were the things that I subsequently build on them" As children we learn and accept many things without really looking deepe... ... middle of paper ... ...rstanding to examine something and receives no sign that it is false, then he has no reason to doubt that thing. Descartes concludes the meditations by saying that since God is not a deceiver, then, if we use our senses, memory and understanding carefully then we will never be wrong in our judgements. However the fast pace of life does not always allow us enough time to judge things carefully enough therefore the nature of human life often leads us to be mistaken. "For the fact that God is not a deceiver it follows that, in such cases, I am completely free from error. But the urgency of things to be done does not always allow us time for such a careful examination; it must be granted, therefore, that human life is often subject to mistakes about particular things, and the weakness of out nature must be acknowledged."

Open Document