Subscribe to Northern Diaries, and don’t forget to press the bell icon so that you get notified
anytime I post a new video. I was going to post this video last week,
but I was pretty depressed, and I just didn’t want to do it.
This series is called Bite Sized Philosophy, where I discuss, you guessed it, philosophy.
Today we are going to talk about Rene Descartes,
a 16th century French philosopher, and his revolutionary Method of Doubt.
Even people who have no interest in philosophy, would’ve heard Descartes’ famous philosophical
statement ‘I think therefore I am.’ His influence on philosophy is so immense that
he is often referred to as the Father of Modern Western Philosophy. Not only that, he also made
incredible contributions to mathematics by inventing the Cartesan Coordinate System,
the foundation of analytical geometry. His invention influenced many branches of
mathematics including differential geometry, calculus, linear algebra, and group theory.
I have a question for you. Try to answer this, as truthfully as possible. Name one
thing that you know is true. The one thing that’s not only beyond any reasonable doubt,
but that’s also beyond any possible doubt. There’s an important distinction here.
I am asking you to name one thing that cannot be doubted. I know you might have several
answers already. I had when I first came across Descartes’ Method of Doubt. My answers ranged
from ‘the sky is blue’, to ‘I stole a pencil from a stationery store when I was a kid.’
But consider this: Is the sky really blue? Ok, what is blue? Blue is a color. But what is color?
Color is technically an illusion. What we experience as “color” is just the brain’s
way of making sense of the electromagnetic photons that collide with the photoreceptor
array that is the retina in the human eye. It is manufactured by your brain. The colour you see
may not always be the same as the colour someone else sees.
As you can see our senses constantly deceive us. From optical illusions, hallucinations to
mental disorders, we are constantly being tricked. Our reality is fluid at best.
Descartes, in his book Meditations on First Philosophy, systematically puts all of his beliefs
to test. True knowledge according to Descartes is to know something beyond all doubt. So he sought
to find THAT TRUTH beyond all doubt, and build his knowledge with that truth as the foundation.
He opens his Meditations on First Philosophy like this:
“It is now some years since I detected how many were the false beliefs that I had from my earliest
youth admitted as true, and how doubtful was everything I had since constructed on this basis;
and from that time I was convinced that I must once for all seriously undertake to rid myself
of all the opinions which I had formerly accepted, and commence to build anew from the foundation,
if I wanted to establish any firm and permanent structure in the sciences.”
Then Descartes methodically deconstructs everything that’s known to him. He begins
this by discussing dreams. Let’s say I am dreaming right now. I am actually not sitting
in front of my computer typing this sentence, but I am only dreaming of typing this sentence.
In my dream it is convincing. So the information that my senses are feeding are not to be trusted.
Descartes asks how do you actually differentiate from such a convincing dream state
and the reality. Once you wake up, you can figure out that you are dreaming,
but not when you are dreaming. So what if I am dreaming right now?
The problem is that it is always right now. So Descartes concludes that he can never trust
his senses as they constantly deceive him. He then goes on to question the existence of an
all powerful benevolent God and, then moves on to conceiving a deceiving evil genius that could
possibly be simulating his whole reality. The best part of this book, comes after this part. After
all the doubts and uncertainties, he arrives at what he thinks is an undoubtable truth. He figures
out that no matter how much he doubts the reality, the very fact that he’s doubting means that there
should exist a doubter. Using his method of doubt, Descartes finally finds the one certain truth,
which is that he exist as a thinking thing, whether there is a physical world or not,
he cannot doubt he exists. This is the foundation, on which he plans to build his knowledge.
One of my favorite sections of this book reads:
But there is some deceiver or other, very powerful and very cunning, who ever employs his ingenuity
in deceiving me. Then without doubt I exist also if he deceives me, and let him deceive me
as much as he will, he can never cause me to be nothing so long as I think that I am something.
So that after having reflected well and carefully examined all things, we must come to the definite
conclusion that this proposition: I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it,
or that I mentally conceive it. But I do not yet know clearly enough what I am,
I who am certain that I am; and hence I must be careful to see that I do not imprudently
take some other object in place of myself, and thus that I do not go astray in respect of this
knowledge that I hold to be the most certain and most evident of all that I have formerly learned.
If you are like me, then you are in a constant state of existential crises,
sucks to be you. Sorry. But do read this book, as it is very accesible,
and you will have a great time reading it. Take it with a grain of salt though.
It’s fascinating, sure. But ultimately all you have is your experience. I first came across
Rene Descartes and his Method of Doubts after I experienced a panic attack on a subway train.
I entertained this idea that I might be profoundly alone. The train, the people
around me, my loved ones, why the Universe itself might just be concepts inside me,
and the reality might very well be an illusion. I had no way to prove otherwise. I broke down. This
led me on a life altering and bizzare path in life. Then I was introduced to Rene Descartes,
Method of Doubts, Solipsism and David Hume among plethoera of other philosophies,
concepts and thinkers. That incident actually motivated me to start this YouTube channel. To
start talking. To better express myself, my doubts and my problems. Maybe I’d find kindered spirits,
and I wouldn’t feel profoundly alone. Even if I found kindered spirits,
there’s no way to know whether they’re real or something I made up to not feel alone.
But these days I am slowly starting to deal with this conundrum. I have come
a long way from that panic attack all those years ago only to realize this simple face;
that it doesn’t matter, even if I don’t know. Not knowing is OK. Lately I have been focussing on
the simple things. It’s ok if it’s not real, but coffee still smells incredible. It’s ok, if it’s
not real, but pizza is delicious. It’s ok if it’s not real, but travelling to far away places feels
magical. Maybe one day I will know for sure. But until then I am taking life one moment at a time
and doing things, that makes me smile. Whether it’s popping a bubble wrap, eating tacos or saying
I love you. So ... read Meditations on First Philosophy but take it with a grain of salt.
What does your happiness look like? What is the one thing that you love,
so much that you don’t care even if it’s not real. It might be coffee, travelling,
your spouse or the beach ... anything. Leave your comment below and let me know.
The reality is one of my favorite things to discuss. So this won’t be the last episode
to discuss this topic. This episode is just the first in many to follow.
I also have a patreon page, where you can support this channel by donating anywhere
from just a dollar. It would support me in producing videos more frequently and in
much higher quality. I sincerely thank all of my awesome patreon supporters.
If you like this episode, and want to watch more,
here is a link to an episode that I did on Solipsism and my break down.
As always if you like what you saw, share and subscribe to my channel,
and don’t forget to press the bell icon, so that you get notified anytime
I post a new episode. Thank you so much and see you in the next video.