Inside The Mind Of Rene Descartes
Throughout this article, I’m going to be talking about Rene Descartes, a French Philosopher, Mathematician, and scientist. Instead of just echoing his perspective, I’m going to be talking about my view on one of his philosophies, God.
But before that, a little bit of context is needed. When Rene Descartes said he believed in God, he wasn’t talking about gods in religions(i.e: Muslim, Christian, etc) who can be referred to as theological gods. What he was referring to was an infinite being that was the original cause of everything.
If we trace any event back far enough, it all comes down to the Big Bang and the origin of our universe. And as most of us do we constantly repeat the same question “how did that happen”? Even with the Big Bang, what created it, what created the creator of the Big Bang, and so on.
Descartes categorized this infinite “how did that happen” as what god is. It was the explanation for every event in history down the origin of the universe. The reason Descartes believed in this so much was because of his commonly known phrase:
“I think therefor I am”
Descartes wanted to find irrefutable truths that couldn’t be argued by anyone. These irrefutable truths would be the foundation for his philosophy. What he realized was that everything around him might not exist.
It could be some type of demon controlling what he sees and he wouldn’t know it. So he concluded that everything around him could just be some type of simulation and the one thing that isn’t a simulation is a thought. Even if that thought is made by a demon or something is controlling it, it is still a thought. Descartes’s whole philosophy was based on the fact that he exists.
Now that we have some context behind Descartes’s view on God and his logic behind philosophy, I wanted to talk about my opinions on the topic.
Everyone has their view on religion and the gods that are behind them. I find that conversation changes based on person to person. However, in regards to Descartes’s view on god being the infinite being and the cause of everything that’s ever happened, I have to agree.
I find Descartes going after the fundamental truths of the universe instead of trying to persuade the world that religious gods exist was a good decision. I think that while understanding religion has an immense amount of value for specific people, understanding the fundamental truths of the universe and buildings things based on that can be applied to everyone.
No matter how hard we try, we will keep asking how did that happen to everything. We can ask who created ____ 100000 times but still won’t be done. I don’t see another answer to this except the fact that there is some being that created everything and we call it god.
What I’m talking about isn’t in the context of theological gods, but in the context of what started it all. What is the reason for our existence?
The next idea I wanted to cover is the subsection that there could be some demon controlling everyone and the only thing we know to be true is what we think.
I find it funny how I ask myself a similar type of question quite a bit.
I’m not sure if I’m the only one but I constantly ask myself, what would life be like from another person’s perspective? I’ve spent my entire life from the same view of everything and have never seen any other. That’s the same with everyone else.
Therefore the only thing I can be 100% sure exists is a thought.
That explains the quote: I think, therefore I am. By thinking you actively prove that you exist, because it is the only unarguable truth to show exist.
If we don’t have actual proof aside from people telling us that they’re a person, how can we confirm that they are thinking about something? Now granted, it’s fairly obvious that people are people and they control their actions but just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean that it can be proven by a fundamental truth.
Switching gears to the basis of his philosophy. I find that Rene Descartes’s logic of using unarguable truths as a foundation for his philosophy can be applied to so many other situations. For example, when trying to validate a hypothesis in science, if you can make a statement saying that this is true based on the fundamental truths of the universe, then you have to be right because you can’t argue against these truths.
Similar to situations when you’re trying to identify the root cause of a problem. If you can say something like “If we can remove all contamination from the final two stages of the water gathering process then water can’t be contaminated” this can’t be argued as well, because it must be true.
From my limited knowledge of philosophers, so far, I’ve found Descartes’s logic to be one of the most useful throughout life, not just when trying to understand how the universe was made.
I think the hard part is finding these types of statements but when you do, if your information is right, you can’t be wrong. Rene Descartes’s logic behind philosophy is the only way to be 100% sure you are right which I find to be the biggest takeaway from learning about one piece of his philosophy. far, I’ve found Descartes logic to be one of the most useful throughout life, not just when trying to understand how the universe was made.
I think the hard part is actually finding these types of statements but when you do, if your information is right, you can’t be wrong. Rene Descartes logic behind philosophy is the only way to be 100% sure you are right which I find to be the biggest takeaway from lerning about one piece of his philosophy.
