The purpose of this paper is to analyze the philosophical arguments of Descartes, focusing on the surprises and points of realization in his selected reading of “Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (Part IV).
In Descartes’ Discourse on the Method, Descartes has adopted the approach of reasoning for explaining his existence. In order to explore the culture of human beings, Descartes has traveled to various other countries around the world. Culture reflects the living standards of human being that are related to the existence of one’s self (Descartes, 2015). In addition to this, Descartes wanted to eliminate his innate opinions and teachings assimilated into his personality based on his personal life experiences acquired while living with others.
Consequently, Descartes also denied the assistance of any learned knowledge from the institutions and relied only on his knowledge acquisition through the observations of the world and its environment. His research made him explore the entire world for the theoretical and realistic reasoning of man’s existence (Descartes, 2015). In this regard, Descartes has discarded the scholarly analysis and rationale that seemed to reflect the intended purpose of Descartes’ research on different perspectives. On the contrary, Descartes preferred the rationalization of common people to serve the research objectives.
Descartes research has modified on the basis of his mystified thought of Theology. He pondered over the truth that why people are having lesser aptitude than him are facilitated by the opportunities of entering into heaven. As he finds himself indulging into such questions, he feels puzzled as he has never thought that he could think about heavens, light, earth, heat and so on. It made him think of the existence of some supreme power that has cultivated such thoughts in his mind. It reflects another considerable surprising conclusion of his research as he has never imagined that he would ever consider someone to be perfect than a man (Descartes, 2015). In this regard, Descartes finds himself unsuccessful in determining the reasons behind this theology that validates the existence of a higher power that is the existence of God. It reveals the fact that it is God who tends to prove his existence through enlightening those who have a desire to acknowledge their perceptions.
Instead of being enlightened by God about his existence, Descartes still had uncertain feelings based on his lacking in intellectual pursuance (Descartes, 2015). As the days passed, he once realized the value of an individual’s thoughts and opinions pertaining to the development of certain logics associated with the research objectives while sitting in a pensive mood in an epiphany.
It was the time when he surprisingly yielded the conclusion that there is no other force on earth than an individual’s logical approach to developing and validating the hypotheses based on the realities of life. It makes the individual capable of living a prosperous life that is free of others’ intrusion. More specifically, it reflects the approach of doubt that means that everything must be treated with doubts other than the existence of God.
In addition to this, Descartes’ has also formulated a unique principle that relates his existence with his capabilities of thinking and analyzing different things, which is “I am thinking, therefore I exist.” It leads to enhancing the element of uncertainty of a person’s conscience. Descartes evaluates that the human’s conscience mental conditions associated with the science of reasoning are in fact rational (Descartes, 2015).
It leads to another surprising ending of the research in terms of developing the concept of the body and the soul. Since Descartes has found him imperfect in contrast with that of God’s existence, he concludes the idea that intelligence is not a body-dependent element.
If intelligence depended on bodily appearance, there would have been no clues to God’s existence as God has been the master of all in terms of his perfections and high levels of aptitude. Therefore, Descartes realized that an individual’s intelligence is associated with his soul rather than his bodily appearance. Moreover, the differentiated concept of soul and body came to his mind concerning the existence of God.
Even the research outcomes surprised Descartes that his efforts of exploring his existence are reliant on the God’s role in making him think. The soul has its existence with the body and without the body as well (Descartes, 2015). However, Descartes has been stumbling in accepting this reality based on its direct association with God.
Conclusively, the research of Descartes has yielded incredible conclusions that are regarded as surprise endings as he was aiming at exploring his own existence that in turn resulted in proving the existence of God. Although Descartes used to revere only man’s logical thinking and existence over that of God, his personal experiences modified his opinions about the supremacy of God in saving our souls. As a believer, Descartes’ surprise endings have profound impacts on my thoughts. I fully endorse his conclusion derived from his experiences in determining his existence and the existence of God as well.
Reference
Descartes, R. (2015). Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting one’s Reason and Seeking Truth in the Science. Retrieved from http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1637.pdf
