René Descartes: Rationalism and 17th-Century Philosophy

Context: The Life of René Descartes

Born in The Hague into a noble and wealthy family, Descartes' father was an advisor to the parliament, ensuring he received the best education in European schools. He was a child prodigy who lived through the 17th-century European crisis, which manifested in several key areas:

Socio-Economic Crisis

The rigid class society began to break down as commercial capitalism, driven by colonial and maritime trade, flourished. This fostered the rise of a middle-class business sector that demanded full political and religious freedom.

Political Crisis

The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) involved the major European powers and signaled the decline of the Spanish Empire. This era was defined by a struggle for religious freedom against the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

Crisis of Mentality

A shift in worldview occurred due to spectacular scientific developments in:

• Astronomy: Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo
• Medicine: Harvey
• Mathematics: Descartes, Leibniz, and Gassendi

This period saw a clash between Aristotelian and Copernican worldviews.

Descartes' Journey

Descartes participated in the Thirty Years' War fighting for the Protestants. In 1629, he moved to the Netherlands, a land of free thought, before eventually dying of pneumonia in Stockholm.

Rationalism and the Mathematical Method

Descartes is the preeminent representative of rationalism. He dedicated his life to science and philosophy, positing that reality is open to an infinite mathematical method. He sought to interpret reality in the most perfect manner possible using the certainty of mathematics.

Key aspects of his philosophy include:

• Autonomy of Reason: Establishing philosophy as independent from theology.
• Universal Science: Seeking a foolproof method by evaluating all previous systems.
• Unitary Knowledge: A conception of knowledge that is unique and cohesive.
• Immanence: The belief that all thoughts must revert to the subject, reflected in the theory of innate ideas.

Ultimately, Descartes opened the critical path that led to the European Enlightenment of the 18th century.

Major Works

• Discourse on the Method
• Meditations on First Philosophy
• Principles of Philosophy