Second Essay Assignment -Descartes

G.W.F Hegel’s interpretation of Descartes is particularly interesting and accurate. In this interpretation Hegel talks about how influential Descartes was to the modern philosophy. He states that the thought of modern philosophy began and how philosophical thinking is conducted  in modern world, (the fact that almost everything is questioned without ridicule such as the brain in a vat theory)  is because of the work of Descartes and how he planted self-consciousness into philosophy. This I think is pretty accurate. In his works Descartes explains his thought process and how he thinks to his readers a lot. He thinks about why he thinks about the topics that he thinks about and more importantly why he thinks that way. For instance in his explanation of why him being able to think is the concrete proof that he exists (I think therefore I am) he reaches to his conclusion by ruling out everything that can have even a small amount of error. This is very important because this shows that Descartes in his methods tries to have zero assumptions about the topics that he thinks about and he has a critical way of thinking about the things that he thinks. Self-consciousness in philosophy is thinking about thought and reaching to the point where there is no assumptions just pure truth. Descartes in his works tries to reach these points and is one of the first people to try to do so. This self-consciousness is very important in philosophy because it acts as a defense mechanism against irrational thoughts, logical fallacies and the limitations of the ways of knowing that is used. Descartes is also very important because his works also teaches people to do the same.

Self-consciousness is also related to doubt. Self-consciousness can also be stated as doubting the conclusions that are reached by thinking or simply doubting anything that is observed, thought and assumed. Most of the philosophic works that we read and debated in the Humanities class never tried to plant doubt. They were always firm in their stance and instructed people in a firm and clear way. Plato’s Republic forms a city state from the ground up but never has any doubts about certain ideas. The philosopher king being a good person is one of the ideas that can easily be questioned but never is questioned. Plato waves away any potential problems that can be caused by this arrangement by stating that if someone is a philosopher they are good. Machiavelli in his political philosophy book The Prince explicitly states everything that a prince should do. But with Descartes every single conclusion that is reached comes with a serious amount of doubt.  In his approach to learning science he states that a collectivist approach can be really good in order to get to truth but he also states that this method is not exactly the best method as well. Furthermore his works makes people doubt about the things that they think they know, for instance the fact that they exist in this world as they are. For all we know we can be deceived by demons and since our perceptions and thoughts can be artificially created and we simply are not real. These are the ideas that nobody really discussed previously because it was immediately waved away with the phrase “Of course I exist! I can move walk talk etc.” He planted doubt in many people and because of this he planted the seeds for many modern philosophic thoughts such as nihilism.  This is the reason that I agree with Hegel’s statement and I found it pretty accurate.