Descartes: Reason, Mind, Substance, and Certainty

Descartes: Reason, Mind, and Substance

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Reason: A synonym for 'bona mens' (good mind). An innate faculty that allows humans to establish right judgments and distinguish truth from error. It is unique: to apply it allows science to acquire universal and objective knowledge. All of Descartes' thought consists in finding a method capable of leading to objective reason: theoretical and practical truth.

Clarity and Distinction in Knowledge

Clarity: Along with distinction, one of the main features of evidential knowledge. It is knowledge of things when they are present to our mind. The peculiarity of Descartes is that intellectual knowledge can be both clear and distinct. In addition, distinction describes the thing perceived accurately.

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Thinking: The ability that people have and that is the essence or nature of ourselves. Descartes is certain that he thinks (as is evident from the cogito) and also has a clear and distinct perception there. That is the first truth, or cogito. It also ensures that my soul is able to think; therefore I do not need my body to conceive my existence.

Substance: That which does not need anything else to exist. That could only be God. Other natures are derived: they only need God to exist and can be differentiated; those that do not exist independently depend on another nature (qualities or attributes of substances).

• Soul: The immaterial part of myself that Descartes claims to be distinct from the body, because I have a clear and distinct idea of myself as something that thinks, and, secondly, I have a clear and distinct idea of the body as something extended and not thinking; therefore I am different from my body and I can exist without it.
• Body: The material or extended part of myself; precisely because it does not think, it is different from the soul. Descartes also ensures that if what defines us is to think and the body does not think, we can exist apart from the body.

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• Thought: Descartes called thought everything that occurs in the mind and of which the mind should be aware. It refers generally to all mental content—every act that is in the mind.
• Skeptics: The movement that existed in France at the time of Descartes who believed that knowledge was impossible. Descartes tried to show that it was possible to know something true, and this would prove, according to him, the first truth and those deduced correctly from it.

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Proposition: A statement that refers to something we examine to see whether it is true or false. Descartes' method involves trying to verify those propositions that are posed to find those that are relevant or fundamental.

Certainty: A resounding affirmation that something is true. We can only be certain of something when it is shown to us in a clear and evident way.