State and Individual: A Cartesian Perspective

Government and Society: The Perfect State

The State: The state is a perfect society that has all the means to achieve its goal, and it is necessary for defense, peace, economics, etc. The church is a society superior to the state and must be subjected to it, as this does not prevent achieving an end.

The Individual: In relations between the individual and the state, all sorts of things are kept, and since the individual is part of the state, laws should be ordered to the common good. Man is not simply a member of the state but a human being who must tend toward the supernatural end. The state's sovereignty is not absolute but is limited.

• By Natural Law: The sovereign has to legislate, apply, and define natural law, because natural precepts are very general and can never go against natural law, and the authority is God, and God is the author of natural law.
• For the Common Good: A law can be unjust if it goes against the common good. Then the subjects do not have to comply. The authority is given by God to the people, and this is delegated to the ruler.

The Cartesian Method

Descartes wanted his philosophy to have only one universal truth, as science is unique and true. The rules put forward are certain and easy to reach a conclusion that is true. Those who observe them will not take what is false as true, and the method avoids error and increases progressive knowledge.

• 1st Rule, Evidence: Do not admit anything that is inconclusive to my mind.
• 2nd Rule, Analysis: Evidence is only possible to have for simple ideas. To avoid error, compound ideas must be broken down into simple ideas. Confusing ideas must be reduced to clear ideas.
• 3rd Rule, Synthesis: After turning complex ideas into simple ones, synthesis is performed. They are recomposed by a sum of simple ideas that do not fail.
• 4th Rule, Enumeration: It is reviewing the process to be sure not to miss anything and to have a whole general intuition.

The entire method reduces to evidence. One achieves evidence of a truth from which the others are deduced. One achieves evidence in the process and in the set. Descartes wants to build our knowledge as an orderly system so that from a fundamental truth, our mind can reach other truths deduced from it. In the method, one starts with doubt. One must eliminate all possible doubt; science cannot be built on dubious principles.