Imagine yourself in a dark room, with no light, surrounded by many things and matters that you cannot see, you can only feel them.
You do not know how far the room extends around you, or whether it is square, rectangular, or circular!
You also do not know what is with you in it or even who led you to it, and you do not know who built it either?
So how do you reach the truth?
And how do you understand the intricacies, reasons, and physics of the place?
This is how this world is, full of mystery that our senses cannot grasp its secrets.
And while you were in this room, you heard a caller saying:
"You are in a square room."
Now you have two choices, either to accept that the room is square or to doubt this information and search for certainty.
The doubt we are talking about is the doubt that motivates towards certainty, not doubt for the sake of skepticism only.
So when that feeling comes to you that the room may be square or may not be, it is a doubt that leads you towards certainty.
"Start now.
Use your mind and determine how to search. Consider if I can prove the opposite of the first hypothesis. If we prove or demonstrate that something contradicts the fact that the room is square, the entire information will be invalidated.
The square is a regular polygon; all four sides are equal and parallel to each other, and each side is perpendicular to the other side, and the four angles are equal, each forming a right angle of 90 degrees.
For example, if we feel around the walls of the room and find no angle or find only three angles, or find that one of the sides is longer than the others, here the hypothesis of a square room is rejected, and we try to determine the shape of the room using the initial information and through more research and deduction."
The truth requires you to rise up and search for it, and to open the doors of your mind towards doubt and criticism with a proper methodology guided by reason and logic.
You must approach the truth with intelligent skepticism, as our Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) did when he doubted the idols that were part of his society's beliefs, until he arrived at certainty about the greatest existential truth.
Now we move on to one of the most important figures in the world who refused to accept the squareness of the room. He is the father of skeptical philosophy, the French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, René Descartes.
On the sidelines of the article, we would like to say that in philosophy, we are not searching for acceptance of the assumptions of philosophers, but rather, we benefit from their research methods and what they have achieved to seriously re-examine all philosophical knowledge output.
Descartes believes that the mind has a single nature for everyone and philosophy is, for him, subjecting the perception of existence to the priority of the thinking being.
And Descartes says:
(It is not enough to have a sound mind, but more importantly, we must use it well).
The Descartes method is characterized by the importance of the mind, which delves into every detail and develops critical methods to reach certainty in the natural sciences and metaphysics. Descartes expressed this in his saying: "I cannot make people see what is inside my library while they refuse to enter it and look at what is inside."
The Descartes method:
Descartes laid down several foundations for his method during his journey to attain knowledge:
First: Intuition and getting rid of preconceptions:
The first stage in the process of reaching truth is to get rid of any preconceived ideas that may affect the research path.
Second: Analysis and division:
This involves dividing every problem I investigate into the smallest possible parts so that I can solve it better.
Third: Synthesis:
It is about putting a system in thinking, starting with the simplest and closest things until I gradually ascend to more complicated matters.
Descartes says: "The perception of some things is dependent on the perception of others."
Fourth: Review and statistics:
The assumptions, knowledge, and information that have been reached must be reviewed and scrutinized until we reach the stage of certainty.
This is the Descartes method that helps us in our personal lives, when we read a book, when we ask metaphysical questions, and in different scientific fields.
Doubt and Cartesian thought:
Descartes says, "Examining all the truths that the human mind can understand is an examination that must be done at least once in the lifetime of those who are serious about applying the principles of reason."
Descartes distinguished between two types of doubt: doubt that aims to reach truth and certainty and works seriously towards it, and doubt that only aims to cast doubt without taking into account the reasons for knowledge. Descartes disliked doubt that was kept without reason, as truth cannot accept doubt. "Trying to overcome all the difficulties and errors that stand between us and the truth is a daring battle for the truth," he said.
Descartes doubted everything around him and started from the most basic and obvious assumption: his personal existence. He doubted his own existence, and the only thing he was certain of was that he was doubting and thinking, and he proved his existence by the proof of his own thought processes. He said, "I think, therefore I am."
He adopted a skeptical method and started from the simplest things towards the most complex. He also proved and examined metaphysical issues and the existence of a Creator for this universe. He provided logical and intellectual evidence for the existence of a Creator, the most important of which was the idea of perfection. Descartes believed that there is a concept of perfection inside him and inside every human mind, and he saw that perfection is an instinctive idea within us, and that humans are not the source of this idea because their perfection is imperfect and incomplete. Therefore, there must be an actor who put the idea of perfection in us, and that actor is the Creator.
Descartes is one of the most important figures in the world whose method was followed by many philosophers who built their theories and ideas on his method and writings. So, should we take a spark from his fire?
Maher Daaboul
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Margin:
*Metaphysics: Beyond Nature, or the Supernatural
*René Descartes (b. March 31, 1596 - d. February 11, 1650)
Also known as Cartesius, a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, considered one of the founders of modern philosophy and modern mathematics.
He is considered one of the most important and influential scientists of modern times. Many Western ideas and philosophies are the result of his writings, which have been taught from his days to ours. Therefore, Descartes is considered one of the fundamental thinkers and one of the keys to understanding the scientific revolution and modern civilization in our time.
His name is celebrated in what is called Cartesian geometry, which is used to study geometric shapes within a Cartesian coordinate system, within the domain of plane geometry, which integrates it with algebra.
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Sources:
Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes, translated by Kamal Al-Hajj (Beirut: Al-Awidat Publishing, Dar Fadoul, 1961).
Descartes and Rationalism, Genevieve Rodis-Lewis, translated by Abed Al-Halaw (Beirut: Al-Awidat Publishing, 4th edition, 1988).
Atlas of Philosophy, Peter Kunzmann Franz - Peter Card, Franz Veidman, translated by Dr. Georges Kattoura (Al-Maktaba Al-Sharqiya, Beirut 2007)
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