René Descartes' Non – Mathematical Method in His Meditations on First Philosophy

Stanley Tweyman
University Professor, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The goal of Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy is to discover the first principles of human Knowledge, that is, what must be known before anything else can be known. In the Preface to the Principles of Philosophy, he refers to this area of inquiry as ‘metaphysics’. If we are to understand Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, it is important to understand his methodology in this work. In light of the fact that, throughout his writings, Descartes refers to mathematics and to the method of mathematics as a model for learning, most commentators regard Descartes as utilizing the method of mathematics in the Meditations, in his effort to learn the first principles of knowledge. At one time, I held this view, as well, although I no longer do, as this talk will reveal. Part of the difficulty in grasping Descartes’ method in the Meditations stems from the fact that nowhere in this work does he reveal the method that he is utilizing. He does employ hyperbolic doubt, especially in the first meditation, but this type of doubt, although part of his methodology in this work, cannot explain Descartes’ method throughout the meditations. What changed my mind about Descartes’ method in his Meditations is his outline, in the Replies to the Second Set of Objections, of the method he utilizes in this work (he calls this method ‘analysis’), and the contrast he draws between this method and the method of mathematics (which he calls ‘synthesis). Descartes urges in the Replies to the Second Set of Objections that the search for the first principles of human knowledge in the Meditations encounters difficulties which are never faced by the mathematician: all difficulties in metaphysics originate through the influence of the senses, which prejudice the mind into believing that certain empirical ideas are the true metaphysical ideas, and which prevent us from focussing our attention on the true metaphysical innate ideas, e.g. of the self and of God, through which the first principles of knowledge can be apprehended. In my talk, I propose to explain Descartes’ non – mathematical method in his Meditations on First Philosophy. We will learn that this method only has application in this book in his search for the metaphysical first principles of human knowledge, and, therefore, even Descartes’ other works do not employ this method.

Presentation