The Nexus Archive
Rationalism
Descartes
The Doubter · Early Modern, 1596-1650
Descartes burns knowledge down to the ground in search of one indestructible certainty.
- Methodic doubt
- Cogito
- Mind-body dualism
- Clear and distinct ideas
Life
René Descartes was a French mathematician and philosopher who spent much of his working life in the Dutch Republic. Seeking secure foundations for knowledge, he developed a method of radical doubt that helped redirect philosophy toward the thinking self.
The question
“What can I know with certainty?”
Argued against
Inherited authority, sensory trust, and unstable foundations for knowledge.
Why Descartes matters
Descartes helps launch modern philosophy by making the thinking subject the starting point.
Works
- Meditations on First Philosophy Treatise · Advanced Radical doubt becomes the starting point for rebuilding certainty.
- Discourse on the Method Treatise · Intermediate Descartes explains the methodical doubt and disciplined reasoning that launch modern philosophy.
Quests with Descartes
- Minds in Doubt A confrontation with certainty, duty, and the values modern life inherited. Modern Philosophy Quest