Descartes’ Epistemology and Its Metaphysical Results

About Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, we are faced with an epistemological problem. Epistemology is defined as the theory of knowledge. It is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. Descartes begins his first meditation on the search for absolute certainty of his existence. In doing so, he abandons the truths he had learned from his youth and reestablishes his foundation to be firm and grounded in science. This quest for absolute certainty leads him to a method of doubt he calls, methodological doubt. It is described, for any belief (x), if (x) can be radically doubted, then (x) will be abandoned or given up as no better than false. The purpose of methodological doubt was to find absolute certainty in things that could not be doubted, like his mind.

Three rational doubts that Descartes challenges are listed as sensory illusions, dream illusions, and a deceitful god, the evil genius. The first doubt, sensory illusions, show us that we ourselves are not aware of what we truly see, smell, touch, hear, and taste. “I have noticed that the senses are sometimes deceptive; and it is a mark of prudence never to place our complete trust in those who have deceived us even once.”

His second doubt are dreams. Lucid dreaming is when the dreamer is conscious that they are dreaming. “As I consider these matters more carefully, I see so plainly that there are no definitive signs by which to distinguish being awake from being asleep.” Optometric research shows us that our brains are active during Rapid eye movement, or REM sleep. For the dreamer to have control of the dream, we cannot rely on dreams or our senses, as they both deceive us.

His final doubt regards the goodness of God, but with radical doubt, it is possible that he is being deceived by an evil genius. “Accordingly, I will suppose not a supremely good God, the source of truth, but rather an evil genius, supremely powerful and clever and has directed his entire effort at deceiving me.” This leads him to his second mediation.

Meditation II describes Descartes’ metaphysics implications. Metaphysics is known as the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space. Descartes’ ultimate basis for his epistemology raises an indubitable belief coined as “Cogito ergo sum”. When Descartes asks what he is, he concludes that he cannot doubt his mind, he is a thinking thing.

As an evolving philosopher, I must evaluate the metaphysical options for my position for what I stand by. My options: metaphysics of the mind, matter, both mind and matter, and neither. The first implication, Metaphysics of the mind, Idealism; objects are immaterial. The mind perceives the objects only. Bishop George Berkeley defined idealism as “the claim that everything that exists is either a mind or depends on a mind for its existence” and immaterialism as “the claim that matter does not exist.” There is no external world, and reality is a series of mental ideas. The first problem we are presented with is the issue of explaining the intuition of an external world. What we see is what our mind allows us to see. What we perceive is the external world, it is what we call reality. The mind is the center of our commands, thoughts, senses. It ultimately guides us through problem solving, decision making, and our basic functions. Our senses can be deceived as any change to an object such as light or water refraction are a temporary implication to what our mind perceives thus creating the problem of a possible illusion. Let's suppose, Berkeley is correct, there actually is no external world, if we cannot perceive matter, how do the objects we use daily do not exist? I do not believe it is not all in our minds. If it were, we would not be able to explain experiences. Humans absorb facts and events during new experiences, which cause electrical impulses through the axons to our synapses to other neurons to store those experiences.

The second metaphysical implication is the dominant metaphysical viewpoint that most philosophers agree with; Metaphysics of matter only, Materialism. Matter is real and non-physical things are chemical reactions. “The theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter or energy; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions.” Thomas Hobbes was a hard materialist. Hobbes described God as a “corporeal spirit”, an immaterial thing. The problem we must examine is the existence of free will or the existence of God. If life were lived by fate, Oedipus Rex is a great example of fate versus free will. At no point did he ask how anything could be changed, and he killed with no hesitation- but it unaware to him that he had killed his father and fulfilled the prophecy. If this were certain, then the evil genius would be the one controlling our lives, and everything would unquestionably happen for a reason. The choices a person made would not matter, and everything that happened, is currently happening, and will happen in the future are written within a scripture of the deity, god, spirit, archangel, etc.

A great example of Descartes’ evil genius theory is shown in NBC’s hit show, The Good Place. Michael, our evil genius, is a demon in the appearance of a human. He was asked to devise a new sector of the bad place with four human subjects: Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason. They were assumed to believe “Everything is fine.” But it was not, Michael devised this neighborhood to ensure that Michael assumed because they are humans that they could torture each other for eternity. Eleanor realizes that she does not belong in “the good place” and she asks Chidi, a moral ethics professor and her “soulmate” if he can help her be a better person through ethics lessons, and the four eventually become the best versions of themselves for the idea of dessert. Along with the humans, Michael was following with the ethics courses, and the evil genius himself realized flaws within himself and he became conscious of his fate were he to fail his experiment. He then abandons his original intentions and decides to help the humans reach the good place. If an evil genius can make decisions and act on free will, materialism cannot be viewed as the dominant metaphysical viewpoint.

Morally, the idea of good and bad generalize us into the categories of people that we are through our choices and free will, but this experiment demonstrates that fatalism can be altered with free will. Free will is the power of acting without constraint. It is considered an illusion because no decisions come freely.

The third metaphysical implication, Metaphysics of both mind and matter, Dualism.

It is defined as “the position that mind and body are in some categorical way separate from each other, and that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical in nature.” Humans are the greatest example of dualists. Humans understand the concept of good and bad, heaven and hell, and we understand our existence and consciousness. The problem we must examine here is the interaction between the mind and body. If we have both mind and matter, we need to understand their function together. The mind is an organ of the body. It is one of the main functions for any species existence. The heart is the true control center. We cannot feel our heart, nor can we feel our minds, but it is necessary to take care of them. If our minds and hearts are unhealthy, we cannot make wise decisions. Descartes is a dualist, but in his meditation, he describes his dual implications. “I can clearly and distinctly understand myself in my entirety without these faculties, but not vice versa: I cannot understand them clearly and distinctly without me, that is, without a substance endowed with understanding in their formal concept.”

With the dualism issue, we must understand what the mind is not. We define the mind by its function, but it is where our consciousness lies. The mind is considered the central hub for our thoughts and logic. The mind is matter. It is a vital organ of any species body- our hearts, the pump of life that removes toxins from our blood. It is the essence of our existence. Our bodies coexist with our minds. The mind is like a machine; when the mind is not taken care of properly, it doesn’t perform its intended functions.

The final metaphysical implication is the Metaphysics of neither mind nor matter, Neutral Monism. This is the idea that the mind and body are not separate, but everything remains neutral in some variant or another. One idea of this was described by philosopher Baruch Spinoza. It was known as the Dual Aspect Theory. He was firm that “mind and matter are merely two of an infinite number of “modes” of a single existing substance, which he identified with God.” This is the idea that reality is neither mental nor material, there is none or the only, only is. Another philosopher, Bertrand Russell described the mind and matter issue as logical constructions, something drawn from logical references. David Hume described the body and mind are collection of perceptions to create experiences. The problem we must examine is how we explore phenomenon; how one deep mystery is solved with another one. Let’s say there is no mind, nor matter, only is. Coincidences would exist; this idea that circumstances would occur without an apparent connection.

Whether we are here in this realm or we are in the sixth dimension, reality exists and we as individuals can decide if we want to coexist with it or not. Descartes did not want his senses to deceive him on his quest for absolute certainty, but understanding our senses distinguishes reality from a facade or illusion of reality. Creating certainty with our senses are essential to deciding where we are in this metaphysical predicament. This issue will continue to be debated for centuries to come and I feel I cannot define my stance without entering some existential abyss. I believe I am a kind of neutral monist. I believe substance is non-mental and that everything is connected. To say substance is non-mental seems meaningless. The mind and body are essentially the same and the way they function connect to our external world. Our lives are not determined, and we do not have freewill, but the decisions we make do have consequences. Everything is one.