“I think, therefore I am.”
Rene Descartes
Roots of Skepticism and Cartesian Doubt
Ahhhh…the delicious smell of skepticism in the morning. One of the roots of skepticism lies in the philosophy of Rene Descartes. He famously said the often quoted, “I think, therefore I am.” But where did his study go after this statement.
This quote is thrown about quite liberally, but what does it actually mean? It’s such a seemingly simple statement. But Descartes didn’t stop there. He took it further and the following concept is that of Cartesian Doubt.
You Are. Now What?
Descartes urges us to go beyond the recognition of your ability to think.
I think…who are you?
I am…what are you?
Systematic Doubt
While his famous quote is a beautiful opening to Descartes, it is the doubt he documented that had a powerful impact on all future philosophers.
Cartesian Doubt is an important element in the foundation of skeptical thinking. Skepticism’s main tenet being that everything in life is subject to systematic doubt. Descartes urged his reader to doubt everything that is able to be doubted. Only then, he believed, after all doubt has been explored, can a person build a strong foundation of knowledge.
There are four main points of Cartesian Doubt:
- Doubt of the senses–Descartes encourages us to doubt the reliability of sensory perception. Our senses are capable of deceiving us.
- Dream argument–Descartes proposes that at any given moment our perceptions could be a product of a dream world. Everything we believe to be true could be an illusion.
- Evil Demon hypothesis–Descartes goes a step deeper. He wants us to consider that there could be an evil demon (some all-powerful entity) manipulating thought and perception. By manipulating thought and perception, such an entity could lead us to believe in false information.
- Cogito, Ergo Sum–And the crowning point. The one thing that cannot be doubted is that we are able to doubt. The very act of doubting confirms existence.
A Doorway
Descartes’ theory of systematic doubt laid a road to skepticism for many thinkers. He believed that without doubt, there is no baseline for determining truth.
Descartes’ leads his reader to the doorway into skepticism. Only going through that door allows truth to be discovered.