Rationalism

Rationalism claims in support of reason that reason is universal in all human

beings; that reason is the most important element in all human nature; that
reason is the only means to certainty in knowledge; that reason is the only way to
determine what is morally right and good and what constitutes a good society.1

 It is the philosophy of 17th century (1601-1699), the century when scientific

breakthrough was mounting towards the peak; and rationalism is the first modern
philosophy2.
 Rationalism emerged after the breakdown of scholasticism—a system of philosophy
based on religious principles, practiced in medieval age.
 Reconciliation of science, religion and philosophy is the prime concern of the rationalists.
The rationalist philosophers accepted the scientific inventions of 17th century. To them,
reason is the source of knowledge. Therefore, rationalism implies the process of
analyzing something rationally.
 Rationalism is primarily concerned with God, soul, and immortality which are
wholeheartedly rejected by the empiricists. Rationalism is the bridge between Medieval
and Ancient philosophy.
 They accepted the fundamental thoughts of Plato, and his theory of knowledge. To them,
central authority is not church, rather Plato.

Descartes
 Father and originator of Modern Philosophy, and also a scientist, mathematician. His
contempt was undisguised for what was taught in the universities, which he regarded as

1
T. Z. Lavine, From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest (New York: Bantam: 1984): 93.
2
It begins with a revolutionary overthrow of all belief, and so with a complete break with the medieval world,
including the church controlled scholastic philosophy.
 traditional, outmoded, stagnant, still clinging to medieval learning and submissive to
church authority.
 Descartes’ approach is not ontological, rather epistemological.
 He was incapable of rejecting neither science, nor philosophy or religion; therefore, he
reconciled.
 His concerns were revolving round truths. He says:
I have always had an extreme desire to learn how to distinguish the true from the
false, in order to see clearly how I should act and to be able to travel with
assurance through this life.

Cartesian Method of Mathematics:

 He has a special scorn for philosophy and philosophers who were ignorant of
mathematics and science. Mathematics is the method which Descartes wants to use for
philosophy as he thinks that Mathematics can clear up the confusions and uncertainties of
philosophy.
 Intuition: implies our understanding of self-evident principles such as axioms of
Geometry (a straight line is the shortest distance between two points) or arithmetic
equations like 5+9=14. Intuitions are direct and immediate knowledge, are self-evident.
 Deduction: * Provide a kind of sentence where any doubt will be self-refuting. * Process
of elimination. * Presupposes some self-evident principles from which universally valid
conclusions will be drawn. (e.g. all bachelors of England are unmarried.)
 Like a mathematician, he wanted ‘proving’, not merely ‘affirming’; ‘establishing’, not
merely ‘assuming’.
 Descartes’ goal as a philosopher is to build a system of philosophy based upon intuition
and deduction which will remain as certain and as imperishable as geometry.

Cartesian Doubt

 He is chiefly concerned with the problem of intellectual certainty, and as a consequence,

he doubted everything that was possible to doubt. This is the famous Cartesian Doubt.
  Descartes’ doubt is unique and revolutionary since, to achieve his bold quest for an
absolute certain philosophy, Descartes is willing, to overthrow and destroy, all he has
ever believed, to cast doubt upon all his beliefs.
 His doubt is methodological as he used doubt methodologically to arrive at true
knowledge.
 Descartes doubted sense perception. These are most readily believed of all but are often
deceptive. Descartes deems the senses untrustworthy as a source of certainty. The whole
field of sense perception can be doubted as dreams, illusions, hallucinations, and the
presentations of an evil demon or not a good God. Descartes says:
What distant objects look like to the naked eye is now denied by telescope,
what minute objects look like to the naked eye is now denied by the
microscope, and what about optical illusions such as the pencils that look
bent in the water? And hallucinations that affect the senses?3
 Therefore, Descartes considers the things which he perceives by the senses as the
deceptions of dream. (I am reading: Am I really reading or ‘tis just a dream?)
 Doubting Science: Science must also be doubted because they are based upon the objects
known by the sense perceptions, which is deemed by Descartes to be untrustworthy.
 Doubting Material Universe: The external realities are placed in our mind by dint of
vision, sound, smell, taste etc.—sense perceptions, and definitely, they are also subject of
doubt. They are also deceptive and therefore, lacking in certainty.
 Doubting Math: He always considered mathematics as the very model of certainty but
they also fall into error sometimes. There may be evil and powerful demon who deceives
him in all the things which he considers best. This is the strongest possible doubt.
 I cannot doubt that I doubt: If he doubts all his beliefs, he must exist in order to be
deceived. If he doubts all his beliefs, including those of mathematics, there is one belief
that cannot be doubted: Every time he doubts, he must exist to doubt. In doubting the
truth of every other belief, he cannot doubt the belief that he is doubting, and therefore,
he exists. Even if all the beliefs he is conscious of are false, one belief remains true, and
the belief is: He is DOUBTING, and therefore, he is THINKING.
To Doubt >> To Think >> To Exist >> I (Cogito Ergo Sum)
3
Rene Descartes, Selections. Ed. Ralph Eaton (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927): 462.
Cogito

 It is Descartes’ absolutely certain, self-evident, and indubitable first principle. He

formulates it in Latin: Cogito Ergo Sum, which means, I think, therefore I am. ( Je pense,
donc je suis in French)
 It is an intuitive certainty by which Descartes meant that the very act of thought implies
the existence of the “I” that “thinks”. It is self-evident because it is clear and distinct.
 Cogito includes any act of consciousness that we are immediately aware of. It includes
doubting, understanding, affirming, denying, willing, refusing, feeling etc. I doubt that I
think—this statement confirms that I exist to deny or doubt.
 The Cogito proves that whenever I am conscious of thinking, I exist as a thinking thing.
 Cogito fulfils all the requirements Descartes laid down for the foundation of his
philosophy. First of all, Cogito is self-evident to the reason; you cannot escape the cogito
by doubting it. Every time you doubt, you affirm it. Secondly, it is independent. Finally,
Cogito refers to the existing world. Descartes affirms that Cogito refers to him, who
exists as a thinking thing. Therefore, he exists.
 Cogito implies subjectivism.4 Here, individual existence is deemed as conscious subject.
Thus, Cartesian Cogito introduces subjectivism into modern philosophy. Subjectivism
carries the implication that the knowledge of other minds and of material objects can be
proved, if at all, only by inference from what I know with certainty.

Proving God

 While proving God, Descartes fears that he may be revolving round in the abyss of
solipsism which implies that mind with its thoughts are the only thing that exists, the only
reality. Therefore, he proves the existence of God by proving that something else exists
beside mind and thoughts.
 He rejects the cosmological arguments of medieval religious philosophers like St.
Thomas.
 Descartes Proves God from Ideas. By “idea”, Descartes means anything one is conscious
of—feelings, sense perceptions, recollections or memory, thoughts of the intellect or
reason. He talks about three kinds of ideas—innate, factitious, and adventitious.
4
Subjectivism is the view that I can know with certainty only myself as conscious subject and my thoughts.
  Innate Ideas: Those ideas which Descartes claims are born with everyone, and appear to
come from our own nature, and to be known by the light of our reason.
 Factitious Ideas: Those ideas which appear to be invented by human imagination like
Medusa, Chamber of Secret, Elf etc. They come from human imaginative inventiveness.
 Adventitious Ideas: Those ideas appear to come from outside us, which nature seems to
suggest to us, and which come despite our will.
 Ideas are only possible when there are the objects of the ideas. Therefore, there is idea of
God in our mind because a real God exists who is the cause of his idea. Again, Descartes
says that all ideas are the effect of causes. Moreover, we have a clear and distinct idea of
God. Then there must be some cause of our idea of God.
 From where did the innate ideas come from? There must be a cause of this consciousness
but no conscious being can be the cause. Descartes claims that his idea of God is innate
and God is the staple cause of this idea in him. God has caused this idea to be innate in all
human beings.
 We all have the notion of perfection in our mind which is impossible for an imperfect
being to provide such ideas, and therefore, Descartes deduced that these perfect ideas are
provided into our mind by God. Therefore, God, the most perfect being must exist to
have produced the conception of perfection in my mind.
 In case of proving the existence of God, existence is followed by essence, and therefore,
Descartes’ argument is rather ontological, not epistemological; and later, these
ontological argument has been recurrently jeopardized by the empiricists ( see John
Locke’s tabula rasa) and later, the existentialists.

Proving External Realities:

Think >> Thinker >> Object of Thinking or External Realities.

 External realities exist because God exists, and God must not create mere illusions.
 Here, his process of proving is elimination and deduction.
 Descartes concludes that physical things, material bodies exist as the causes of our ideas
of them. And so, physical substances, last of three components of reality has been proved
to exist.
  Primary Qualities: Descartes concludes that the only objective qualities of physical
objects are the qualities of being extended in space with some size and shape. They must
have “spatial extension”, they must have length, breadth, and depth. In other words,
physical things need not have colors or tastes or odors in order to exist, but in order to be
physical things at all, they must have size and shape.
The name of primary qualities have been given to those qualities which Descartes
identified as known by reason, as the qualities necessary to a physical thing—size, shape,
and the capacity of motion.
 Secondary Qualities: What we apprehended by the senses (color, smell, taste) are not the
qualities of physical objects at all, but rather they are qualities which exists only in us.
They are caused by external objects which stimulate our sense organs. These are the
result of the impact of physical objects upon our bodily sense organs.

Cartesian Universe

 World of Mind: Pure thoughts, controlled by morality. For mental and spiritual
substances, the principal attribute is thinking: it is actually a thinking kind of substance—
substance which is conscious. By definition, they lack any spatial extension, occupies no
space, is not measurable or quantifiable, and is not in motion.
 World of Matter: Pure extension/ space/ physical substances which are defined by their
principle attribute of being extended in space. It is measurable by geometry, which is the
science of physical measurement. They are physically extended, mathematically
measurable, lack any mental spiritual conscious attribute. Physical things have no
consciousness, and cannot think.
 Cartesian Dualism: means that Descartes did not reconcile between matter and mind.
Mind and matter represent two kinds of substances constitute two different and separate
realities between which there is a gap which can never be closed. Descartes has presented
the classic case of metaphysical dualism, of a dualism within reality. Dualism is the name
for any theory which claims that there are two ultimate and irreducible components in the
subject to be explained. Cartesian reality consists of two kinds of substances, mental and
physical, and the one kind of substance can never be shown to be a form of, or be reduced
 to, the other. So for psychophysical dualism, mind can never be shown to be derived
from, or a form of, or a function of, or reducible to, matter.
 Cartesian Dualism is the most extreme example of psychophysical dualism in the history
of philosophy.

Spinoza

 His aim was to find a position from where religion, science, and morality could be
viewed.
 He has the theory of knowledge of his own.
 None can depend purely on experience since temporal data is provided by experiences.
Experience varies from person to person, as they always goes under massive change, and
consequently, experiences are not the part of reality. Knowledge can never be refined and
finalized by experience.
 Time can never be regarded as a value of or characteristics of reality because, time is
divisible into second, minute etc., and time is also changing—it is not permanent. Time is
the summation of infinitive moments but impermanent, and any impermanent thing can
never be a part of reality.
 It is also serious mistake to perceive reality by “reason” (since it can be used in numerous
ways) and perception (always changing: produces fragmented ideas, not absolute ideas).
They are just confused and inadequate ideas, not a part of reality.
 Reality can be perceived by “intuition” or innate ideas.
 Sub specie aeternitatis: means under the aspects of eternity. A thing can truly be
perceived if it is viewed from eternity or under the shadow of eternity. This is the first
process of attaining true knowledge. True knowledge is the flow from eternal existence.
 Descartes deduced that essence (mind) and existence (matter) are different but Spinoza
assures that these two are inseparable, and is called “Essential Existence” which is
infinite in nature. This is the essential and unique property of God that essence and
existence are mingled in Him. Moreover, through this, the unresolvable Cartesian
Dualism is finally resolved.
 Characteristics of Essential Existence: * unchangebility * undividedness * infinitude
  For Spinoza, God= Substance= Essential Existence.
 Extension (res extensa) : It survives against the ravages of time, and therefore, it can be a
part of Essential Existence. It is not divisible; it is permanent and infinite.5
 Extension could be the attribute to the Substance/ Essential Existence only when Thought
was attributed to it.
 Thought (res cogitans) is the “objective essence” or essentia objectiva of Extension; and
Extension is the “object of thought” (objectum or ideatum). Essence of any Existence is
the Thought, and Thought’s external manifestation is Existence. Mother is the Existence
whereas motherhood is the Thought.
 Existence or Thought are inseparable, and both of them are attributed to same Substance.
 Characteristics of Substances: (i) infinite appearance and Attributes (Space is infinite in
nature). (ii) The attributes are not our ways of knowing Substance, but constituents of
Substance Itself. So, we know several components of Substance, not the Substance
Himself. (iii) Anything that indicates limitation or finitude are excluded from the
characteristics of Substance. Thus, God is unique but not the one as God is beyond any
limitation. (iv) Numerability is a limitation since it can be divided into many things, and
as a consequence, Essential Existence is beyond any numerical value. (v) exists beyond
time, shouldn’t be interlinked with time, and existed before the creation of time. (vi) Only
God is essential existence, as God Himself only conceives both essence and existence at a
same time.
 Why does Spinoza utter only two attributes? Because, we are, to a little extent, modes of
Thought and Extension; and other attributes are inapprehensible to Spinoza, let alone to
us. So, Spinoza has talked about only two attributes, rather Substance has infinite
attributes which cannot be perceived by our limited knowledge.6
 Substance has infinite attributes, and each attributes of Substance is infinite. The
attributes are not the substance itself, rather, the components of the Substance. So, God is
not an extension but extension is an attribute of God.

5
God is extension, and a tree also falls under the category of extension. Consequently, the tree shares the attribute
of God, but it is not the God, rather shares Godly quality. So, Spinozistic philosophy is pantheistic in nature. For
Spinoza, nature is the manifestation of God.
6
“We can only Know what we are”—Spinoza. We are just extension and thought; nothing else. Thus, Spinoza was
not able to discover the other attributes of God.
 Spinozistic presentation of God is anthropomorphic—through the point of view of a man.
 Natura Naturans means God as a creator; and Natura Naturata implies the idea that God
Himself as existence/ creation. These two Latins intend to mean the unity of God as a
creator and creation.
 Human Freedom: * Man’s independence is “relative independence”, not “absolute
independence”. * Man’s relative independence is dominated by one thing which is called
Cupiditas or “desire”, and this desire is also limited. * Man’s high sounding ideas of his
freedom is actually a farce; they have no idea of their freedom. * Man is free to choose
but he is not free form the consequence of his choice. He must have to accept the result
though the choices are limitless. * Although man has apparent freedom, there are some
instinctive limitation [e.g. a boy cannot be pregnant, a man cannot run faster than a horse
etc.] * Man is, therefore, passive and slavish since he has to perform actions which are
obvious. So, in this case, he is being enslaved by his own actions.
 Passion: dominated by “confused ideas” which creates many sensuous reactions like fear,
anger, love, lust, hatred, revenge; and these vary from man to man, and are
uncontrollable.
 Action: depends on “adequate ideas” which follows the nature of mind alone. It is
independent and controllable. It is the manifestation of true power of mind. In this case,
he is dominated by the virtues. Hence, he is devoted to a constant and intelligent
endeavor to help and befriend mankind. Action does not divide a man from the other,
rather, it unifies man. It can be achieved when anyone has Amor intellectualis dei.
 When man’s actions are followed by adequate ideas, then the life becomes the life of
virtue, and “life of virtue is the life of reason.” Then, all desires are under control, and
man gets a kind of freedom under the shadow of God.
 Amor intellectualis Dei: means intellectual love towards God which is constant and
eternal. If anyone exists under the shadow of God, his life will be the most rational life
which is “freedom from bondage.”
 Definition of a Free Man: When a man is dominated by adequate ideas, then he is called
as free man.
 Leibniz

 Provided two philosophy—one is for public consumption, and the other one is for private
satisfaction.
 Considers reason as supreme, and did not accept anything beyond logic and reason.
 To him, supreme reality is called “Substance”.
 “Time is no characteristic of ultimate reality” as well as extension as they are also
divisible. Hence, he denied the reality of matter. He defies those which were taken for
granted by Descartes and Spinoza.
 He promoted “infinite number of Substances” which are called “Monads”: Monads are
isolated from each other. They are windowless. Where Spinoza talked about a single
substance, Leibniz talked about an infinite number of substances which are the
constituent element of the universe, and they are called Monads.
 They are neither point nor atom; rather spiritual or intellectual things. They cannot be
explained by our ordinary sense perception. Monads are individual and independent.
They have no causal connections.
 Leibniz conceived the Monads as souls. This was the logical consequence of his denial of
extension to substance and his allowing of attribute of thought to remain. Monads do not
belong to the world of matter, but to the world of thought.
 Monads are active; they function by themselves.
 Activities of Monads: (i) Appetition: in built/ potential essence of Monads. (ii)
Perception: actuality—mirroring the universe. The world we see is nothing but the
reflection of monads. As everything is constructed by the monads, they reflect the entire
universe.
 The vital characteristics of the universe is same as the universe is formed of monads
which have same appetition and perception.
 Things are different because of the variation on the level of the monads on the basis of
actuality and potentiality. For example, a man may have a massive structure which is
considered as his actuality; but when he was a kid, having muscle was nothing but
 potentiality. Hair’s potentiality is that hair will become white but when it will become
white, it will be its actuality.
 Natura non facit saltum : Nature never takes a leap. Nature always follows the law of
continuity, it always expands, and it is perpetual. There are continuous development in
nature.
 Matter or Simple Monads: They are confused and unconscious mental state. They have
limitative power of reflection. Root cause of evil.
 Mind or Superior Monads: They are constituted by clear and distinct ideas. They have
more distinct power of reflection, and are self-conscious.
 We, human beings, are formed of lower monads (matter), and higher monads (mind).
 Pre-established Harmony: Monads mirror everything as they are dictated by the God to
mirror. Other monads will automatically be changed if any of them is changed. They
reflect one another in a harmonious way. God made the monads in such a manner that
there is always perfect harmony between the changes in one monad and those in any
other.
 For Leibniz, reason for the existence in the universe is the God. There is no reason in the
universe for the perfect existence. God wished, and thus existence is possible. Thus, God
exists. Here, he proves the existence of God.
 Defending Cartesian Dualism: Mind and matter are distinguished in their state of being;
and this distinction is genuine and qualitative. Mind is conscious and matter is
unconscious. Thus, these two things are beyond any kind of reconciliation. Hence, he
defends Descartes, and refutes Spinoza.

S. M. Ishmam Alam (Riyadh)

Department of English, RU

Roll: 13060472.