Philosophical Imaginatrix: Meditations of First Philosophy by Rene Descartes

During the 17th century, Rene Descartes wrote a very beautiful book called Meditations of First Philosophy. He rejected all his previously pre-convinced belief system. And started a journey of pure reason. Descartes is a rationalist. 

The book is divided into 6 meditations (parts). Each meditation builds a way for another meditation. He wrote the book on French. Which was not normal at that time. Books used to be written in Latin. But Descartes wanted to reach a larger audience. Hence he used French. Because people speak it. They will understand it. Descartes did not accept easy traditional answers, but he himself started his internal journey to find reason behind logics. And logics behind reasons. 

The first meditation starts by doubting what is real. Science requires truth. Not a truth that works in percentage. But an absolute truth. Descartes rejects everything that comes under the circumference of doubt. He doesn't need to go on rejecting every thought process. Rather he rejects the fundamental beliefs that forms other belief systems. If the foundation is doubtful, everything that is made of that foundation is doubtful. Descartes explains that everything that the senses create are just illusions and have a very powerful being. None of such belief system can be the foundation for science. 

The second meditation explains that if all my beliefs are doubtful. Can there be any truth which is absolutely certain. If even all my experience are doubtful, one thing is for certain that there is an experiencer, who is experiencing the experiences. Hence that 'I', the experiences must be absolutely certain. The only proof there is to prove that 'I' exist, is the fact that I think. I exist because I think. Which means that I am certainly the mind, the mind who thinks. Here, Descartes reaches his famous conclusion, 'I think, therefore I am'. 

The third meditation deals with idea and the cause. An idea must have a cause. Descartes summarized the modern notion that every effect must have a cause. Which means that the cause is as real as the idea in itself. Descartes then reaches a conclusion that if there is any other condition by which a cause is caused, there must exist something beyond me which is also absolutely certain. Materialism certainly is getting a reality because I exist. But the ideas of god, the perfect being and the infinite universe cannot be caused by my mind. Because I am imperfect and finite. Descartes summarized the modern notion that every effect must have a cause. 

The fourth meditation explains that the deliberate deception comes out of imperfection. And only an imperfect person (less than the perfectly good) can be the cause of such imperfection. Descartes explains that if his judgements comes out from the god, it is certain that he can make no mistake, if he can use his judgements properly. But since his judgements are not in the infinite faculty, he is bound to make mistake. Descartes then talks about 'free will' that is bestowed upon him. Free will is infinite. And free will extends beyond the intellect. And this is why it is possible for a him to be deceived. Because he has the freewill to reach any conclusion, real or unreal. And these conclusions can deemed as knowledge. But that has no fixed certainly. Hence somethings can be known as absolutely certain. And this can be done if he avoids making mistakes and limits claims on what is knowledge. 

The fifth meditation moves ahead on the journey to know 'certainty' about the material objects. The material objects are made of motion, size and shape. Hence it is certain that there exists the certainty of geometrical truths. But the geometrical truths are not the faculty of sensory experiences. Descartes explains that certain geometrical truths cannot be imagined by the faculty of senses. But since we can think about the ideas about the geometrical truths, that can be done in regards to god. Descartes then draws a conclusion of the perfect being (god's), PERFECT = that which lacks nothing. We cannot think of the being that is perfect, but has no existence. Hence existence belongs to the god. But this does not imply that thinking something would make it exist. Because god is not a deceiver, if a 'man' perceived something distinctly to be true, it will remain true. Though man might forget the reason for the truth, it will not change the fact that truth is the truth. And without the existence of god, man cannot come to a conclusion of certainty. 

The sixth and the final meditation talks about mathematical truth. Because man can perceive the existence of geometry, it can be said that the shapes (abstract) representing them a real. Man cannot comprehend the figure with 10000 sides, but he surely can think of the idea. With the faculty of imagination, man can convince himself of the material objects beyond intellect. Man can convince of the existence of the inimaginable figures with the use of geometry. But why does the imagination exist? The most plausible answer is that the mind is joined with the body. Body has sense organs. And sensations must be the reason for the imaginations. Because knowledge comes through the senses. But man does not understand the relationship between the body and the mind. Hence it is also plausible that we can doubt everything. Even in those places where certainty exists, doubt exists. Since God can create absolutely anything as man apprehends it, a division is essential for understanding distinction. In that division, man knows he exists because he knows he is a thinking thing and a possessor of the body. It is certain that 'I' is not the body, hence it is plausible it can exist without the body. 

Rene Descartes is the Sherlock Holmes of literature. He uses his deduction power and logic. Let us understand his philosophy with the start point of 'I think, therefore I am' logic and reach the conclusion 'I am, therefore I think'. 

Some famous saying from the Meditation of First Philosophy:

1. Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

2. But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and that also imagines and senses.

3. I am not a collection of members which we call the human body: I am not a subtle air distributed through these members, I am not a wind, a fire, a vapour, a breath, nor anything at all which I can imagine or conceive; because I have assumed that all these were nothing. Without changing that supposition I find that I only leave myself certain of the fact that I am somewhat.

4. When I turn my mind's eye upon myself, I understand that I am a thing which is incomplete and dependent on another and which aspires without limit to ever greater and better things...