Analysis of the surprise ending in Descartes' Discourse on Method

Descartes Discourse IV

For centuries, humans have wondered about certain basic paradigms of the universe -- how do we know what we know? Is there truth? Is there a God? How can we prove that? While we know that this basic question has been debated for centuries, it was Rene' Descartes who focused more that only the discovery of reasonable knowledge and eternal truths were found by reason alone. These truths, for Descartes, included the basic language of the universe for him -- mathematics, as well as the foundations of the sciences as a whole. Other knowledge, for example the knowledge required by utilizing one's experiences within the world, were aided by epistemological study (Markie, 2004).

Thus, one of the main contributions of Descartes to the philosophical discourse was that as a result of his method of rationalization, reason alone determines knowledge -- completely independent of other senses. In basic principle then, there are four laws of the Cartesian Method: 1) Accept nothing as true which is not absolutely clear and distinct; 2) Analyze a problem and break it into its components -- then discuss those components individually, part by part; 3) Arrange any thoughts from simple to complex, let those thoughts evolve in the organization of the mind; 4) Ensure that enumeration must be complete, in total, and nothing should be omitted -- thus the truth will then emerge (Grayling, 2006). One of the most famous quotes from Descartes is simple in fact, but complex in reality -- Cogito Ergo Sum (I Think, Therefore I Am). For Descartes, it was important to attempt to uncover the certainty of ideas, and the basic thought process and center of "though itself" of primary importance. For example, if Descartes doubted the veracity of something, then his doubting must prove that he exists and is true…. To doubt is to think, to think is to exist. True as a basic axiom and metaphysical truth for Descartes and the very starting point for his views of humanity, the universe, and even the Divine.

Descartes' Discourse on the Method is really a way that he tried to explain his own thought processes as well as his theory of the universe. There are six parts to the work, but it is in Part IV that Descartes asks about the proof of God and the soul. The idea of being able to "think" and realize existence is necessary in order to conceive of, and understand not only the Divine but also the human soul. We can see the sky, the sun, mountains, etc., but we cannot see God. It seems that the most important way of Descartes describing God is that an imperfect mind could never conceive of a perfect God -- that would mean the existence of perfection relied on imperfection to be true.

Then, when I wanted to move down to more particular matters, so many varied ones presented themselves to me that I did not think it would be possible for the human mind to distinguish the forms or species of bodies on the earth from an infinity of others which could exist there if the will of God had put them there and, thus, that one could not adapt them to our use, unless one proceeded to the causes through the effects and made use of several particular experiments. After that, I turned my mind onto all the objects which had ever presented themselves to my senses. I venture to say that I didn't notice in them anything which I could not explain easily enough by the principles which I had found. But I must also confess that the power of nature is so ample and vast and its principles are so simple and so general that I observed hardly any particular effect which I did not immediately understand as being capable of being deduced in several different ways, so that my greatest difficulty is usually to find on which of these ways the effect depends (Descartes, Part IV).