Descartes and the Philosophical Revolution

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Descartes and the Philosophical Revolution
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Descartes (1596-1650)

• Descartes was a philosopher, mathematician, and a
  man of science. In many ways he can be considered
  the founder of modern philosophy.

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• Descartes first made a name for himself by
  discovering Analytical Geometry.
• He also made discoveries in areas like optics.

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What can we know for sure?

• Descartes related his intention to tear down the
  edifice of knowledge and rebuild it from the
  foundations up!

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What can we know for sure?

• It was the rigorous methodology characteristic of
  geometry and arithmetic that alone seemed to
  promise Descartes the certainty he so fervently
  sought in philosophical matters.

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Cogito, ergo sum

• I think, therefore I am.

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Cogito, ergo sum

• I think, therefore I am.
• Certain knowledge is that which can be clearly
  and distinctly conceived.

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• In the ultimate religious questions, not divine
  revelation, but the natural light of human reason
  had the final say.

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• People were noble beings not by virtue of being
  the central focus of a divine plan as revealed in
  Scripture, but because by their own reason they
  had grasped natures underlying logic and thereby
  achieved dominion over its forces.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 1. Education would take on new meaning. Educated,
  rational people would act for the good of the
  whole.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 2. Verifiable facts and theories tested and
  discussed among equals replaced dogmatic
  revelation hierarchically imposed by an
  institutional church.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 3. The nature of reality had fundamentally
  shifted for Western people, who now perceived and
  inhabited a cosmos of entirely new proportions,
  structure, and existential meaning.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 3. The nature of reality had fundamentally
  shifted for Western people, who now perceived and
  inhabited a cosmos of entirely new proportions,
  structure, and existential meaning.

• 4. The strategies and principles that science had
  shown to be so useful for discovering truth in
  nature were clearly relevant to the social realm
  as well.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 4. The strategies and principles that science had
  shown to be so useful for discovering truth in
  nature were clearly relevant to the social realm
  as well.

• 5. Faith and reason were now definitively severed.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 5. Faith and reason were now definitively
  severed.

• 6. Christian dualism transformed into modern
  dualism a subjective and personal human
  consciousness versus an objective and impersonal
  material world.

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Seven Philosophical Consequences

• 6. Christian dualism transformed into modern
  dualism a subjective and personal human
  consciousness versus an objective and impersonal
  material world.

• 7. A sense of optimistic affirmation of human
  self-development and the eventual triumph of
  rationality and science over human ignorance,
  suffering, and social evils.