Philosophy 101 Unit 1

-Elena Solomon-

Galileo lived from 1564 to 1642; Rene Descartes lived from 1596 to 1650. Descartes existed at the same time as Galileo; he challenged Aristotle and the Church at the same time as Galileo; he introduced radically unique thought at the same time as Galileo – thought, from both men, that would form the basis for the modern worldview of today. Yet Descartes finished his life with a pension from the French King, a request to teach the Swedish Queen Christina, and he died in general high esteem (1)*, whereas Galileo ended his years subjected to house arrest under suspect of heresy (2). Descartes managed to maintain a good name by using euphemisms for the term “God” in his works and prefaced his works, such as Meditations on First Philosophy, with letters addressed directly to men of the Church that defined his purpose, or at least a sweetened version of his purpose in order to remain clean in their eyes.

Such a letter can be found on the very first page of the aforementioned book, addressed “To those Most Wise and Distinguished Men, the Dean and Doctors of the Faculty of Sacred Theology of Paris.” Descartes is, in essence, sucking up. The letter details Descartes’ purpose in publishing his Meditations, throughout which he intersperses arguments of: ‘ “…we must believe in God’s existence because it is taught in the Holy Scriptures…” (3) but for those who don’t believe, I have written these thoughts,’ or “…one may infer from Sacred Scripture that the knowledge of him…is so utterly easy [to achieve] that those without this knowledge are blameworthy…” (3) and then he proceeds to actually quote from the Bible. He does this to turn those who might be his persecutors, the esteemed men of the Sacred Theology to whom he addresses his letter, into his supporters. Once they realize Descartes’ purpose is to “refute [non-believers’] arguments and to use all [Christian philosophers’] powers to demonstrate the truth” (4), with emphasis on truth, they can read through his work without the need to condemn him like they did Galileo – as Descartes wrote it in the name of God.

Descartes’ use of the word ‘truth’ in the above statement, and not some other word, such as ‘gospel’ or ‘scripture,’ reveals his other key method of escaping the heretic label: euphemisms. By using ‘truth’ Descartes further cloaks his upcoming challenges of God, for he ‘proves’ his belief that worshiping God is the only way. Whether he actually believes the latter is subject for debate; while it probably holds true, he may have just been covering his tracks. At key points in his work – for example in Meditation Two, when he breaks down all normal semblances of cognition and outright challenges God – Descartes substitutes the title God with “evil genius” (5), effectively nullifying his challenge (because he does not, in fact, challenge the will of the Almighty God, but rather some Evil Genius – or so he desires the men of the Sacred Theology of Paris to believe). Thus Descartes effectively escapes condemnation, unlike Galileo, who outright declares the Church at fault, or so the Church believes he does.

While Descartes seems the wiser of the two men, since both he and Galileo play the same game yet end with opposite fates, Descartes does have one advantage over Galileo: Galileo goes first. Descartes realizes the danger in publishing his philosophy only after hearing of Galileo’s infamous trial and conviction; he thereafter ceases plans for Treatise on the World, his novel worth four years of work, and instead puts out Discourse on Method and many other works besides (1). Descartes depends on Galileo for his own survival, and consequently today seems the wiser, but in actuality merely went second in the intellectual advancement known as the Scientific Revolution.

1. “René Descartes.” Wikipedia. 9 Sept. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rene_descartes#biography>.

2. “Galileo Galilei.” Wikipedia. 9 Sept. 2008 <http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#Life>.

3. Descarte, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. 3rd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Company, 1993. 1.

4. Descarte, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. 3rd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Company, 1993. 2.

5. Descarte, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. 3rd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Company, 1993. 16.

*I know Wikipedia is not a great source to cite, but this is not a formal paper and I only used it for common knowledge –well, “common” knowledge. Information that can be found in many places – that I happened to get from this website, and I had to cite something. Also, the information posted on Wikipedia is regulated by scholars to maintain high accuracy levels.