Descartes on Philosophy

 This semester I have the privilege of doing an Arranged Course on 'The History of Modern Philosophy' - not a subject I normally teach, and one that I am excited to work through.  I am looking forward to interacting with some of my philosophical heroes, and sharing golden nuggets from their thoughts.  Usually I will share some quotations or insights with relatively little of my own commentary or analysis.  This week: Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the French rationalist often considered the 'father of modern philosophy.'

Descartes' definition of Philosophy: "Philosophy means the study of wisdom, and by wisdom we understand not only prudence in affairs but also a perfect knowledge of all things which man can know both for the conduct of his life and for the conservation of his health and the invention of all the arts." (Principles of Philosophy, Preface)

Project & Goal: “Descartes ideal aim, therefore, was to construct [a] comprehensive scientific philosophy.  In metaphysics, the roots of the tree according to his analogy, he starts with the intuitively apprehended existence of the finite self and proceeds to establish the criterion of truth, the existence of God and the existence of the material world.” (Copleston, A History of Philosophy, IV.2, 71)

Self & God: “Descartes is concerned with the ordo cognoscendi, the order of discovery, not with the ordo essendi, the order of being.  In the latter order God is prior … But in the order of discovery one’s own existence is prior.  I know intuitively that I exist.” (Copleston, 79)