How Can You Know For Sure?
Descartes’ A Discourse on Method focuses heavily on the idea that reason is superior to faith. In the book we find that Descartes is trying to discover truth and in doing so he also discovers what is morally true. Descartes realizes that before he can begin to argue what is true he must argue what is real. Therefore, he questions himself and his own existence, making sure that he himself is real. By questioning his own reality, Descartes makes the famous quote, “I am thinking, therefore I exist.” (p. 29) The quote brings the reader to the realization that in order to think one must be real because without thought there would be no consciousness of reality or what people perceive to be reality. If what is true can be known using The Method, then Descartes is also able to discern what is morally true using The Method.
In order to discover what makes Descartes’ findings true, we must first look at his method of knowing what is true. Descartes has a four-step process that he follows to make his conclusions with. The first step is the “step of facts” as some might say. The first step is to, “never accept anything as true that he did not incontrovertiblyknow to be so.” (p. 17) What Descartes is trying to accomplish by the previous statement is avoiding all prejudice and premature conclusions (p. 17), and to include nothing in his judgments other than which has made itself so clear and distinct that he would have no reason or logical, reasonable chance to doubt it. For example, 2+2=4. There is no doubt associated with the mathematical fact, and that is what Descartes is trying to convey to the reader.
The second step is mostly a “problem solving step.” In this step Descartes’ goal is to, “divide all the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as many as were required to solve them in the best way.” (p.17) An example of this step is when a person is trying to make an outline for a paper. They find themselves faced with the problem of writing a paper, so they divide the paper into as many sections as possible to give themselves the best solution possible for making a good grade.
Some might call the third step the “step of order.” Descartes’ primary focus in this step is to, “conduct his thoughts in a given order, beginning with the simplestand most easily understood objects, and gradually ascending, as it were step by step, to the knowledge of the most complex; and positing an order even on those which do not have natural order of precedence.” (p.17) An example of this step would be a staircase. Each step has its purpose, which is to provide a place to stand or step. Each step has its own place. And each step has its own order, which is one after the other.
Step four could be called the “big picture step.” Descartes describes the fourth and final step as being one in which he “was to undertake such complete enumerations and such general surveys that I would be sure to have left nothing out.” (p. 17) an example of the fourth step is the God’s point of view. God can see the whole of life and has a very broad perspective because He sees the past, the present, and the future, not just the present.
The search for truth begins with Descartes knowing that truth exists because of his statement. If one has the ability to think and think about themselves thinking, then they can know that they are in at least some form of reality. Descartes argues that there is nothing true about the statement other than the fact that it is very clear that in order to think one must exist (p. 29). From this realization, Descartes concluded that almost anything that is clear and distinct are true, but that it can be very hard to be able to identify what we conceive to be distinct (p. 29).
The search for moral truth begins when Descartes decides to look for the source from which he had learned to think of something more perfect than himself. Realizing that the source was himself, he then came to the incontrovertible realization that because he was the source that there must be a nature that was more perfect than him (p.29). The realization that there must be a nature that is superior or more perfect than the human nature would naturally point to the idea of God because it is inherently known that if man was made by a Creator that the capacity of the Creator must be greater than that of the man because the man is capable of only what the Creator has allowed him to be capable of. Also, the man is not equal to the Creator because the man does not inherently know without thought that he exists and because he realizes that there exists a nature that is more perfect than himself.
“I am thinking, therefore I exist” has shown Descartes that he can be incontrovertibly certain that he exists. From this Descartes can also know that anything that is clear and distinct is most likely true. Descartes then realizes that he is the source of knowing that there is something more perfect than himself. The realization of this knowledge leads him to know that there has to be a nature more perfect than his own, and this nature could belong to none other than what we know to be God. In conclusion, objective morality can be found from finding objective truth using The Method.
Works Cited
Descartes, René, and Ian Maclean. A Discourse On The Method Of Correctly Conducting One's Reason And Seeking Truth In The Sciences. Oxford University Press, 2008.
