An Idiot's Guide to Descartes's 'Discours'

Y U SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND??

   The idiot in this scenario is me. It took me a week, two lectures, a seminar, numerous articles and books and countless hours reading until the early hours of the morning before I finally began to slowly understand Descartes's 'Discours de la méthode' (Discourse on the Method). I haven't done Philosophy since Y12 and I dropped it after AS for a reason so this new French Thought module has been a struggle but I'm powering through. Whilst desperately searching for articles that could help me simplify the philosophy jargon, it really annoyed me that I found none! So, I thought I'd make this blog post a simple explanation of the Discourse for two reasons; 1) It'll help me revise when exam season comes in June and 2) It's actually really interesting and I hope that it can help someone like me one day, who is searching for a simple explanation of Descartes's ideas. Sorry if you don't like Philosophy. Right, let's get on with it.

What is the Discourse?
   Full name: 'Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'. It is a 17th century philosophical treatise from French philosopher René Descartes that aims to provide a method for finding truth and reason, in order to analyse situations differently. It has 6 different parts; the first three parts talk on Descartes's background, how he came about the Method and the various rules and moral codes that are associated with this Method. The fourth part of the Discourse uses the Method to prove Descartes's existence and the existence of God, the fifth part applies the Method to the Sciences and the sixth part is a conclusion that summarises everything.

What is this Method?
    Using doubt- doubting everything leads to one finding parts of life that can't be doubted and when these parts are discovered, one finds the truth and reason. This doubt is known as hyperbolic/ Cartesian doubt.

What are the rules of this Method?
To never accept anything for true that is not known to be true, divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible, conduct thoughts- start with easiest and simplest, make detailed lists and reviews- omit nothing.

How does the Method prove Descartes's existence?
Descartes doubts and doubt is in the thoughts, it doesn't come out of nowhere. So, to have thoughts, a person must exists and this leads to one of the greatest philosophical statements ever; Je pense donc, je suis: I think therefore, I am. Or cogito ergo sum in Latin if you want to be fancy. Descartes also says that these thoughts come from the soul, which is completely separate from the body.

How does the Method prove the existence of God?
Descartes doubts so, he can't be perfect. However, he has the idea of a perfect God in his head and this idea of perfection cannot have come from Descartes himself as he is not perfect. Therefore, the idea of perfection must have been placed in Descartes's head by a being that embodies this perfection- this being is God and this an anthropological proof of God that is also known as dubito ergo Deus est: I doubt therefore God exists. There is also the a posteriori (from experience) proof which states that Descartes cannot create himself as he is imperfect so his existence must come from an omnipotent being that is the creator of eternal truths, the biggest truth being the clear and distinct idea of Himself that He has put in Descartes's head. The final proof of God that Descartes offers is ontological and a priori but if you really want to know more about that, just ask.

Criticisms of Descartes's Method.
1) If one doubts everything, one begins to doubt the act of doubting itself, leading to an infinite circle of doubt.

2) The rules and morals of the Method contradict each other sometimes.

3) The question of solipsism that argues that Descartes is only proving his own existence, not the existence of everyone else on the planet.

4) The hypothesis of the malin génie (evil demon)- how do we know that Descartes's omnipotent God is not an evil being that is directing people towards the wrong thing?

Why is the Discourse an important text for philosophy?
    - It is one of the reasons why Descartes has been called 'The Father of Modern Philosophy'.
    - It presented a new way of looking at philosophy by showing the link between rationalism, knowledge and self evident truths.
    - It presents a new way of analysing situations and looking at the world.


So, there you go, future Kenny. Sorry if you found all that boring, I just needed to get all the Descartes out
of my system. It seems like he's everywhere today; I went to two different events today and somehow, Descartes was brought into the conversation at both. Inwardly, I screamed. Next week, I'm starting lectures on Rousseau and I haven't even read the book yet lolz. Week 7 will definitely be interesting. Farewell for now.

PS- I started tutoring at a secondary school this week as a Y12 Languages assistante and it went really well! I also sang in a Christmas Carol service and that made me feel so ready for the holiday season. Also, Catching Fire was so amazing that I'm going to go see it again next week. Might review it soon, if I don't collapse from my workload. You'd think that things would get less hectic towards the end of term!