A History of the Origins of World Philosophy, Seventeenth Century Western Philosophy No. 4: René. Descartes 1

Seventeenth Century Western Philosophy NO. 4: René. Descartes 1

1. The historical status of Cartesian philosophy

　　Descartes was one of the lucky ones — the lucky ones of history. Because he was born in the era of scientists and philosophers. The American historian of science Bell once said: "Descartes' time is indeed one of the greatest intellectual periods in the history of mottled civilization." Only a few outstanding figures whose life period partially overlapped with Descartes is presented here. We recall that Fermat and Pascal were his mathematical contemporaries; Descartes was 20 years old when Shakespeare died; Descartes lived 8 years longer than Galileo and Descartes died at The age of Newton 8; Milton was born when Descartes was 12 years old, and the discoverer of blood circulation, Harvey, lived 7 years longer than Descartes, and when Gilbert, who laid the foundations of electromagnetism, died, Descartes was 7 years old. In this way, it can be said that talents are born, and the wind and clouds will meet, "tonight the stars are shining.". However, Bale's statement is not comprehensive. He was talking mainly about the group of scientists who were about the same time as Descartes.

In fact, before and after Descartes, there was an equally extraordinary group of philosophers. The historical role of this group of philosophers, compared with the group of scientists, can be said to be a spring orchid and autumn chrysanthemum, each with its own wonderful. There were as many as seven or eight great philosophers and great thinkers of descartes who were about the same time as Descartes. The oldest of these was Bacon, who was 35 years old. When Bacon died, Descartes was just in his prime, 30 years old. This was followed by Hobbes. Hobbes was born in 1688, 8 years older than Descartes, and the two had a direct relationship. Again is Gassanti, who is 10 years older than Descartes and is both a Fellow Descartes Frenchman and his polemic rival. Then there's Pascal. Pascal was both a great mathematician and an excellent thinker, and his famous book "Records of Thought" also had an important impact on the history of Western thought. He was 36 years younger than Descartes. Younger than Pascal are two of his peers, Spinoza of the Netherlands and Locke of England. These two are not only the same age, but also giants in the history of Western thought. The last one was Leibniz of Germany, who had just turned 4 years old when Descartes died, and the two of them were the most philosophical cultural giants of Europe in the 17th century.

　　Descartes lived in such an era, and he was fortunate to have lived. However, there are many people living in the fortunate era, and fewer people can turn this historical luck into historical opportunity. Descartes not only seized the opportunities that history has offered him, but also performed very well. Although he had Bacon as a precursor when he was an adult, and at the same time as Hobbes and Gassandi, Western historians of philosophy, such as Hegel and Russell, regarded Descartes as the progenitor of modern philosophy and considered him the founder of modern Western philosophy.

　　Why did these two great men have a crush on Descartes?

　　First, because Descartes was a great thinker of greater knowledge and scientific originality than his contemporaries.

　　In terms of his erudition and achievements, Descartes is a historical figure who can be completely on an equal footing with the giants of the humanistic era. He was not only a great thinker, a great philosopher, but also a great mathematician, and had made remarkable achievements in physics, optics, magnetism, geology, earth genetics, anatomy, embryology, medicine, psychology, astronomy, meteorology, and many other disciplines, so that no matter how much we look at the history of ideas, science, or culture in any kind of modern Western era, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, we will find Descartes's name in more than one or two or even five or six specialized fields.

His theory of earth genesis is regarded as the most meaningful theory of the early modern period; his theory of magnetism, considered by historians of science, to be "mechanically understandable, and in a sense foreshadowed the modern concept of magnetic induction", and said: "Descartes thought for his disciple Jacques. Roo inherited and explained (1671). These ideas were generalized to the phenomenon of electricity and dominated the field throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, with certain modifications. In fact, in this branch of science (which Newton greatly ignored), Descartes' authority remained the longest. "

His contributions to the field of mathematics, especially outstanding, are rare. He was the creator of analytic geometry, and historians argue: "Descartes did not modify geometry, he created geometry." One of his fellow mathematicians commented: "The whole concept of the object of study in the mathematical sciences has undergone a radical change, and it was Descartes himself who directly contributed to this change." Later, in the next century, people indirectly promoted this change in the opposite direction. Descartes was indeed fully aware of the importance of the invention he had made, and he boasted that just as Cicero's rhetoric surpassed ABC's, he had so far surpassed all geometry before him, and he was right to say so. "

Even in psychology, Descartes was a very good figure. American psychologist Du. Schultz held him in high esteem, and in his history of modern psychology, he gave him a separate section, a separate introduction, and commented: "There is a scholar who has indeed made a direct contribution to the history of modern psychology; he has surpassed any one man, and he has liberated his research from the rigid theology and traditional dogmas that have ruled for hundreds of years." "This great man was Descartes, who symbolized the transition from the Renaissance to the modern period of science, and many felt that he represented the beginning of modern psychology." It is truly enviable that a person can make such an outstanding contribution in so many fields. The brilliance of Descartes is that he was knowledgeable and capable of being versatile, knowledgeable, and deeply specialized— not only knowledgeable but creative, and thoughtful—not only epoch-making achievements in certain professional fields, but also thoughtful, concrete and abstract.

　　Descartes is more capable than Bacon; he is more refined than Hobbes; he is more capable of thinking than Galileo. In this respect, even the great thinkers of the 17th century, with the exception of the later Leibniz, are almost unrivaled. But he was also not perfect: he valued experiments as much as Bacon; he was not as good as Hobbes when he broke superstition; he was loyal and indomitable, nor as good as Galileo.

　　Second, because the 17th century was a century of science, the great Newton grew up in Si. It should be said that before the 17th century, the greatest influence was Luther's Reformation; after the 17th century, the greatest influence was Newtonian mechanics. In the rather years after the 17th century, which can also be called the Newtonian era, born in the age of science, it is impossible to succeed without considerable mathematical knowledge; with Newton, it is possible to have a deep knowledge of mathematics. Precisely in mathematics, Descartes has more advantages than the English empiricist philosophy represented by Bacon and Hobbes. Bacon was not entirely unaware of the importance of mathematics, but his own knowledge of mathematics was too flattering; Hobbes had a fondness for mathematics, but unfortunately this gentleman was somewhat ambitious and self-righteous in mathematics. Despite his conviction that he had solved the mathematical problem of turning circles into squares, he was discouraged by true mathematical experts. Even a philosophical figure as influential as Spinoza cannot match Descartes in mathematical prowess and achievements.

　　The 17th century was the century of science, and Descartes could not be the darling of this century.

　　Third, European philosophy in the 17th century, although different from continental rationalism and English empiricism, had a general tendency toward rationalism. And the philosophy that best represents this rationalist tendency is clearly not early English empiricism, but Cartesian philosophy. In this regard, Hegel, in his Lecture on the History of Philosophy, once made a few concise comments, saying: "René and Descartes are in fact the real founders of modern philosophy, because modern philosophy is based on the principle of thinking. Independent thinking is here separated from the theology of philosophical argumentation, putting it on the other side. And immediately gave Descartes a high evaluation.

　　Only in this way can Cartesian philosophy have greater influence and more heirs than Bacon and Hobbes philosophy.

2. Descartes' cultural character and life

　　Descartes' character is full of contradictions; Descartes' career path is also full of contradictions; these contradictions are caused by another reason.

　　Descartes was both a thinker, a soldier, a gentleman, and a great mathematician and versatile scientist. It is truly amazing to bring these identities together. His life experience is actually not complicated. But his personality and living habits have many differences from ordinary people.

　　Naturally, this anomaly can also be explained from the point of view of Chinese: a person who is extraordinary must do extraordinary things. In fact, it is mainly because his personality is a little special.

　　Descartes' lifelong pursuit, apart from learning, was tranquility. Meditate on learning, and run west for tranquility. Naturally, the pursuit of tranquility in a certain sense is also for the sake of learning. But such a strong demand for a peaceful and tranquil environment as he did is indeed rare among the philosophical figures of all time.

　　He himself said: "I only ask for peace and tranquility". And for the sake of peace and tranquility, he hid many times to prevent his friends from knowing where he lived.

When he was young, he hid in Paris for two years. After settling in the Netherlands, he also changed 13 towns and had 24 houses for the same purpose. In this respect, he differs from most modern philosophers in the West; as a Frenchman, he is especially different from the Enlightenment ideas of the 18th century. Still, it's embarrassing to make a brilliant genius hidden.

　　Descartes was not very well-developed, and the psychological burden was sometimes heavy. He often fails to make a proper assessment of his physical condition. He was not very fit, and since he was a child, he had developed the habit of being bedridden in the morning, a habit that had not changed for about a lifetime. In his later years, he went to Sweden, because of the Queen of Sweden, his habits could not be changed, but his body also quickly collapsed, and it did not take long for him to die.

　　And he also has a special habit of not being inspired unless he has a very warm research environment. This is the opposite of the ancient Greek sage Socrates. Socrates liked to think in the snow the most—he liked the cold. Di Gong meets the warm spirit, Su Weng is not cold and unwise, just like plum blossoms and hibiscus.

　　Descartes liked peace and quiet, warmth and comfort, and high sleepiness, but he chose a path to enlistment. It is said that the life of a soldier can save him from many troubles, which is really a good practice within the public court.

　　But he was not a student, much less a coward. He liked to dress himself up like a gentleman, he dressed well, he was well dressed, he fashioned swords, and he was happy to wear a large, wide-brimmed hat with ostrich feathers. He drew his sword because someone insulted the prostitutes around him; he was favored by the superiors for his bravery in battle, and even awarded him the rank of lieutenant general—fortunately he was self-aware and did not accept the appointment. In short, he had extraordinary talents and learning, but he did not want to disdain being a mediocre scholar.

　　Descartes was a philosopher and thinker with individualism as the main theme. Russell once made a pertinent assessment of this, saying: "Modern philosophy has retained most of its individualistic and subjective tendencies. This is evident in Descartes, who built up all knowledge according to the certainty of his own existence and acknowledged that 'clarity' and 'judgment' (both of which are subjective) are the criteria for judging truth. However, he was also a timid and conformist man—at least this is how he subjectively knew it, and he had drawn up for himself a "provisional code of conduct" that stipulated: "Obey the laws and customs of our country, and firmly believe in the religious beliefs that God has given me since childhood", and "only seek to overcome myself, not to overcome fate, only to change my desires, not to change the order of the world".

His doctrine is actually full of the atmosphere of the times and a certain indomitable spirit, but he himself is really a little timid, even a little cowardly. He wrote a methodology in which he, like Copernicus, affirmed that the earth was rotating, and like Bruno, believed that the universe was infinite. But as soon as he heard the news of Galileo's persecution, he immediately became nervous, so that his work was never published in his lifetime, and even if it was published later, it was only a few fragments.

　　Descartes was not married all his life, but not without love. He liked prostitutes. He had an illegitimate daughter, but he did not have the courage to recognize the girl as his own. Later, the girl died at the age of 5, and he only expressed some sorrow. In the modern history of the West, there are many single thinkers, but there are not many experiences like Descartes.

　　Descartes' character contradictions reflect the contradictions of his time. Because he lived in a time when the French monarchy was in its heyday. It stands to reason that capitalist civilization is characterized by democratic politics based on a free-market economy, but britain, France, or Germany have gone through a period of short, long, moderate, or intense autocracy before the introduction of democratic politics, and this era of authoritarianism is often an era of strength and prosperity— at least on the surface. However, this strength finally could not hide and could not solve the extremely sharp contradictions of its own existence. As a Very Sharp Mind, Profound Knowledge, and Contemplative Descartes, this profound social contradiction is very typical in his own cultural character.

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