DESCARTES: MEDITATIONS

Foundations of Modern Philosophy: From

Methodical Doubt to Rationalism

Alba Cutillas
HISTORY OF THE MENTAL | University of Maribor
 René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher and mathematician. A
contemporary of Galileo and an admirer of his hypothetical-deductive method based on
mathematics, Descartes sought to develop a similar approach adapted to philosophy,
capable of extracting certainties. To achieve this, he had to discard many of his earlier
philosophical influences, as he considered many of them erroneous. However, given the
historical context of the Inquisition, he had to write his hypotheses in a somewhat veiled
manner to avoid putting himself in danger.

In an era when Scholasticism was still the dominant school of thought, Descartes stood
out as one of the first modern thinkers. This is reflected in his individualism—he wrote
freely and by choice, without belonging to any specific school of thought, and he wrote
not in Latin but in his native language, French. His Meditations on First Philosophy,
published in 1641, became a cornerstone of modern thought, marking a shift toward
rationalism. In this work, he sought to establish a secure and indubitable foundation for
accessing knowledge.

First Meditation

Methodical Doubt
The first meditation is entirely dedicated to explaining what methodical doubt entails, a
preliminary step in Descartes' method, aimed at arriving at certainty. Here, Descartes
questions everything, even the information perceived by his senses, likening them to
hallucinations or dreams. He also deems sciences that deal with composite phenomena
in nature, such as medicine, astronomy, and physics, as uncertain. However, he clarifies
that those dealing with simpler elements not found in nature, like arithmetic and
geometry, appear much more solid because they yield evident, clear, and distinct1
results. For example, a square has four sides both in reality and in dreams. This stance
makes sense, given that he based his entire method on mathematics.

Evil Genius Hypothesis

For Descartes, the falsity of mathematics could only be the work of God, but this idea
makes no sense because “it is said of Him” that He is omnipotent and good. However,
he entertains the possibility of an “evil genius” capable of deceiving him, so he
continues to doubt everything to ensure this deceiver cannot prevail. In this section,

1
Throughout the text, Descartes uses these words to refer to evidence.

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Descartes attempts to convince us that he doubts mathematics, but we already know this
is not the case, as the existence of such a malevolent genius would be impossible under
the omnipotence and benevolence of the God he describes. Notably, in the first and third
meditations, he uses an impersonal and distant style to refer to God, almost as if He
were more of an opinion than a divine being—something characteristic of a modern
thinker.
At this stage, Descartes must find a first certainty from which to begin—a truth so
indubitable that it overcomes his methodical doubt.

Second Meditation

Cogito Ergo Sum and Res Cogitans

Continuing with the evil genius hypothesis, Descartes wonders how he can dispel
doubts about his own existence. He concludes that as long as he experiences the cogito,
that is, the experience of the self (him thinking), he knows he exists. This is the first
"clear and distinct" truth he can establish: the res cogitans.

Res Extensa
Regarding the physical world, Descartes does not deny its existence but questions the
changing perceptions we have of it through the senses and imagination. To illustrate
this, he uses the example of wax: it has a specific shape, texture, and smell, but when
melted, it changes state. This wax can only be understood through the intellect, a
product of thought. For Descartes, this constitutes another clear truth. He thus arrives at
his second certainty, the res extensa, which encompasses that which possesses extension
and is apprehended through thought, not imagination.

Third Meditation

In this meditation, Descartes revisits his certainties. The first is the cogito, which he
defines. However, he then falls into solipsism, continuing to doubt everything. To
adhere to his own method—deduction—he needs to demonstrate the existence of
something beyond himself.
Here, a contradiction in his reasoning becomes evident: while in the First Meditation he
claims to doubt everything, including mathematics under the evil genius hypothesis, he
later reveals that his source of evident truths is his thought and mathematics. It is
possible this idea was presented indirectly to avoid Inquisitorial censorship.

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Breaking Solipsism
To escape solipsism, Descartes turns to the concept of ideas. Again, he acts as though he
distrusts mathematics and relies solely on the cogito. He defines “idea” as something
present in thought and identifies different kinds: innate ideas, those of the external
world, and those of the imagination.

For Descartes, the most fundamental ideas are innate. An example would be the
knowledge that parallel lines do not intersect (again, mathematics), or notions of
perfection and the distinction between good and evil. Based on innate ideas, all humans
would have the same capacity for understanding, a notion opposed by his English
empiricist contemporaries, who argued that humans are born without knowledge,
acquiring it through experience and analyzing sensory data inductively.

According to Descartes, distinguishing the nature of these ideas is challenging. Should

we believe him, or is he merely presenting this as a stepping stone to use the principle
of causality to escape solipsism? This would make the meditation more acceptable to
the Scholastic thought of his time, which frequently employed this principle.

The Principle of Causality and the Res Infinita

According to this principle, every effect has a cause, but the effect can never exceed its
cause. Descartes describes ideas as mental images (objective reality) representing
something (formal reality). His reasoning here echoes Aristotle, who also distinguished
between substances that exist independently and representations in the mind. Descartes
adapts this distinction for his causal argument, asserting that an idea with a high degree
of objective reality (like the idea of God) must have been caused by something with an
equally high or greater formal reality. Despite being a finite and imperfect being,
Descartes can conceive of God as a perfect and infinite being. Therefore, God exists, for
only He could have implanted the innate idea of Himself in Descartes. Here lies the res
infinita, his third certainty.

Conclusion

In this reflection, Descartes employs concepts from antiquity, whether Aristotelian or

Scholastic. His only true innovation is associating God with the mathematical concept
of infinity. It is likely that his canonical definition of God was crafted this way out of
fear of the Inquisition. While we cannot determine whether Descartes genuinely
believed in God, his conception seems more characteristic of modernity, which
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questioned God as the center of the universe and measure of all things. Previous
theologians had also proposed a mathematical notion of God, but Descartes seems
motivated more by fear of censorship than by theology, blending his personal ideas with
the orthodoxy of his time, which he knew well. This explains his association of
certainties with substances (res), a common Scholastic concept that added nothing new.
In this way, he avoided breaking with tradition.

Today, Descartes' philosophy is often criticized for its circular reasoning: his thought
always guides him, allowing him to reach mathematical certainties through it. Any
certainty or substance refers to something produced by his thought or mathematics. For
Descartes, whatever can be mathematized is real, as it derives from thought, not
imagination. Even his definition of God is mathematical, calling Him the res infinita,
and this is also the case with the res extensa, as he reduces the physical world to
extension. From the outset, he is certain of these ideas but chooses to present them in
different ways.

Descartes inaugurated modern philosophy by critically addressing the problem of

knowledge, questioning whether we can trust scientific knowledge derived from
evidence and demonstrated through experience. The theoretical development of this
problem would continue with empiricism and later with Kant.

Descartes was the father of analytical geometry. He established a coordinate system for
locating objects in space and doubted everything that could not be located within such a
system.

El concepto de la “idea” tiene un largo recorrido en la historia de la filosofía. Para

Platón, no remite a un pensamiento, sino que tiene un carácter ontológico en tanto en
cuanto hace referencia a la esencia del «ser». Fue Descartes quien le otorgó a “Idea” el
significado por el que la conocemos hoy. Su definición sería usada por pensadores
futuros, como Locke.