Descartes' Rationalism in First Three Meditations: A Critical Discussion

This article critically discusses Descartes' rationalism in his first three meditations. It contrasts rationalism with empiricism and analyzes two epistemological theories to determine which provides the most adequate basis for knowledge of the external world.

Running head: PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

PHILOSOPHY 1
Question:
Critically discuss the issue of rationalism in Descartes’ first three ‘Meditations’.
Rene Descartes is famous for his noteworthy contributions in the field of philosophy.
He is regarded as the father of modern philosophy ( Schwitzgebel & Moore, 2015).
His theories of meditation highlight clear and distinct ideas of his account of the
rational institution. Descartes, Meditations gives an extensive study in establishing
knowledge by deductions and rational intuition. The epistemological theory of
Descartes famous work, Meditations contributes largely to the theory of knowledge
(Hjørland, 2014). His three central claims in his theory of meditations are His
arguments on the existence of God, self and of physical objects (Rasmussen, 2016).
The theory also highlights his idea of the rational institution through the concept of
distinct and clear ideas.
a) How does Descartes show that he is rationalist?
According to Descartes, people can do anything just by thinking. The concept of
rationalism which explains that people can have knowledge without the experiences
of the real world totally relates to the thought process of Descartes. Descartes loved
the mathematical concepts due to its definite conclusions. He despised philosophy
since it does not follow the same rule. Descartes tried to portray a definite conclusion
in philosophy by the usage of systematic doubts. The systematic doubt plays a role in
finding definite answers in philosophy. Descartes is considered to be a rationalist
since he tends to find answers not on the basis of empirical evidence but on the basis
of rationality. By his meditations and wax theory, Descartes illustrates himself as a
rationalist.

PHILOSOPHY 2
b) Contrast rationalism with empiricism
The dispute between the concept of rationalism and empiricism generally takes place
within the branch of philosophy that deals with the study of source and nature. This
branch is commonly known as the Epistemology (Schwitzgebel & Moore, 2015).
There is a wide difference between rationalism and empiricism. Both of them are the
direct opposite of each other. Rationalism is the faith in natural concept, reason, and
deduction. On the other hand, the concept of empiricism lies in the belief that there
are no inborn ideas, empiricism is the opinion in the induction and sense perceptions
(Hertzberg, 2016). The dispute between empiricism and rationalism highlights the
sense experience in the efforts of the individual to gain knowledge. According to the
concept of rationalism, there are several ways in which people can gain concepts or
knowledge and this is independent of the sense of their personal experience
(Descartes, 2016). On the other hand, the concept of empiricism highlights that all the
knowledge and concepts that an individual can gain are totally dependable in the
sense of experience which is the one and only experience one can have. The main
disagreement between the empiricism and rationalism encircles around the sources of
pieces of knowledge and concepts (Vanzo, 2016).
c) Two epistemological theories and which provides the most adequate basis for
knowledge of the external world?

PHILOSOPHY 3
The two epistemological theories by Descartes are the 1st meditation and the third
meditation theories. Among the two theories, the third meditation theory provides the
most adequate basis for knowledge of the external world (Cunning, 2014). The theory
begins with the egocentric predicament. He has proved the existence of his mind in
the previous theories but the existence and belief about the external world have been a
challenge to him (Rasmussen, 2016). In his theory, Descartes replaced the truth
criteria of indubitability with the distinctness and clearness criteria of truth. According
to his theory, he explained the need to undertake a number of preliminary steps if the
perception does not ensure the existence of the physical objects (Schwitzgebel &
Moore, 2015). In his meditation theory, Descartes attempted to explain that both the
god and he himself exist. According to his theories, he explained that he exists
because he thinks he does. Since the process of thinking requires thought and thought
can only be existent when he exists, he does (Descartes, 2015).In explaining the
existence of God, he concludes that without the process of thinking one cannot think
about the god. His theories explained the existence of god since existence is a
relationship and not a characteristic.
This theory of Descartes provides one of the best illustrations of the usage of the
rational institution and deductions (Descartes, 2016). He explained that people cannot
understand from their senses about the existence of the physical objects. He further
explained that people may get surprised by knowing that there exist an external world
of objects which cannot be felt by prior reasoning.
References

PHILOSOPHY 4
Cunning, D. (Ed.). (2014). The Cambridge Companion to Descartes-Meditations.
Cambridge University Press.
Descartes, R. (2015). Meditations on first philosophy. The Philosophical Writings of
Descartes, 15.
Descartes, R. (2016). Descartes' Meditations. Author's Republic.
http://www.phil.vt.edu/JKlagge/Meditations1Spring.pdf
Hertzberg, B. (2016). Rationalism, pluralism, and freedom. Contemporary Political
Theory, 15(2), e18-e21.
Hjørland, B. (2014). Is Facet Analysis Based on Rationalism? A Discussion of Satija
(1992), Tennis (2008), Herre (2013), Mazzocchi (2013b), and Dousa &
Ibekwe-San Juan (2014). Knowledge Organization, 41(5).
Rasmussen, A. M. (2016). Rene Descartes: Kierkegaard’s Understanding of Doubt
and Certainty. In Volume 5, Tome I: Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and
Modern Traditions-Philosophy (pp. 31-42). Routledge.
Schwitzgebel, E., & Moore, A. T. (2015). Experimental evidence for the existence of
an external world. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 1(3),
564-582.
Vanzo, A. (2016). Empiricism and Rationalism in Nineteenth-Century Histories of
Philosophy. Journal of the History of Ideas, 77(2), 253-282.