What can we know: Descartes and The Meditations on First Philosophy

A.Meditation One and the Modern World View

The Meditations on First Philosophy were written by the French philosopher Rene Descartes ( 1596-1650). The Meditations, as they are often called, were first published in Latin in 1641.

Descartes was descended from a family of well to do lawyers and educated at the newly founded Jesuit College of La Flèche. He likely attended La Flèche for 7-8 years from the age of 10 to 17 or 18. At La Flèche he studied Latin and Greek, classical poets and Cicero, mathematics, and three years of philosophy based on the philosophy of Aristotle. At the time Descartes was at La Flèche, natural philosophical systems other than Aristotle’s were beginning to gain currency in Europe. Among the important changes in the intellectual life of the era was the discovery of the moons of Jupiter by Galileo in 1610. This was used to argue for an understanding of the universe, a heliocentric understanding, that was radically different from the geocentric universe argued by Aristotle and the Roman Catholic church. Galileo was declared a heretic by the Catholic church. Descartes feared a similar fate and throughout his life attempted to avoid any religious controversy. This avoidance of religious controversy was particularly important given the schism of the Protestant Reformation.

Descartes eventually received a law degree, but he never practiced law. Instead became a “gentleman soldier” in the wars between France and Spain.

On the night of November 10, 1619, Descartes had three dreams that he interpreted as telling him he should reform all knowledge. He began this by reforming philosophy. Like most of the other thinkers of his time, Descartes believed the principles of the other sciences must be built upon the foundation of philosophy.

During the 1620s Descartes travelled in France and Italy and worked on his Rules for the Direction of the Mind. By 1628 he had completed about half of the Rules, which he then abandoned. It was published posthumously in 1701. He moved to the Netherlands where he worked on meteorology and metaphysics. In the later field he eventually published Discourse on the Method (in French, 1637) and then his Meditations on First Philosophy.

Prior to the publication of his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes sent his document to “the twenty or thirty most learned theologians” (these actually included both theologians — scholars who specialize in the study of God (Theos) and God’s works — and philosophers) soliciting from them objections to his arguments. When his Meditations were published, they were published (1641) with the objections that had been submitted to him and Descartes’ replies to these objections.

After the publication of the Meditations, Descartes devoted himself to studying and writing on physics (Principles of Philosophy, 1644), physiology (where his incomplete writings were published posthumously) and then, in the Passions of the Soul, on behavioral physiology including the emotions (in French, 1649).

In the broad range of his research and publication record, we can see Descartes as the paradigmatic natural philosopher for whom all areas of philosophy and the natural world were suitable topics for research and publication. This sort of scholarly activity is profoundly different from the highly specialized research that is characteristic of modern scholarship.

In 1649, Descartes accepted an invitation of Queen Christina of Sweden to become her court philosopher. While in Sweden he composed the Statutes of the Swedish Royal Academy. He also became ill, never recovered, and died on 11 February 1650. Descartes’ skull can be viewed at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris