Rene Descartes: #1: (His History)

This is Oliver Woods from GreatBibleReset.com, discussing the importance of returning to the original intent of the Mosaic Covenant. Today, we're looking at the life of Rene Descartes, a French philosopher and mathematician. Descartes questioned how we know what we know and concluded, "I think, therefore I am." He shifted the starting point of knowledge from God to man. Descartes laid the groundwork for the Age of Revolution and is known as the father of modern philosophy and science. His mechanistic view of the world influenced thinkers like Isaac Newton. Descartes' ideas contributed to the shift away from reliance on God's revelation and the rise of the autonomous human mind. This had implications for subsequent history and led to a different perception of reality. Welcome again everybody to this sequential journey that traces the lives of 100 of the classical authors as they overlap through the history of Western civilization. This is Oliver Woods at GreatBibleReset.com, which refers to America's critical need to return to the original intent, not of the U.S. Constitution, but of the Mosaic Covenant of Exodus 20-24. The Ten Commandments are listed in Chapter 20, and the case law illustrations of those Ten Commandments are in 21-23. Now I know I say the same thing every single day, or every single time, but it's the one and only thing that will appease the wrath of God against America at this late hour. This is the heart of it. So today, let's look at Rene Descartes, and I'm sure you can guess from the name that we're crossing the English Channel over into France. Rene Descartes was obsessed with the most basic question of philosophy, and that is, how do we know what we know? He was plagued by the idea that a malicious demon might be deceiving him about his own existence. Was he existing in a dream world? Was he dreaming as he sat there before the comfort of his blazing fire? Was he in some kind of a parallel universe? Was he in a simulation? These doubts plagued his mathematical mind. He was an accomplished mathematician, having already discovered analytical geometry, the use of exponents, and even explained the rainbow. After a season of philosophical analysis, finally he concluded, I think, therefore, I am. From there he went on to allegedly prove the existence of God and the world by deduction. Thus he shifted the starting point of all knowledge from God to man. And that's the key thing. Now, first, let's get our historical bearings here. Those of you who have been with me for a while may recall that we've given titles to the ancient and medieval worlds. Starting out in the ancient world, we call it the pagan world. Then we have the Prince of Peace, Jesus himself. Then the patristic world of the Church Fathers, or the Roman Empire, which fell in 494 A.D. The papal world of the early Middle Ages came next, and then what I call the patriotic world of the late Middle Ages, of Charlemagne and Alpha Degree and his immediate successors leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Now, leading to the modern world, we have a number of eras that start with the letter R. First of all, the Age of Renaissance in the 1400s, the Age of Reformation in the 1500s, the Age of Revolution in the 1600s, and we'll get back to that in a minute, then the Age of Rationalism or Enlightenment in the 1700s, the Age of Romanticism, which is kind of a reaction to the sterile rationalism of the Age of Rationalism, but this came in the 1800s, and then finally the Age of Relativism in the 1900s. Now, here we have Descartes at the dawn of the Age of Revolution in the 1600s. He was born in 1596 during the Scottish reign of James VI and then James I of England until his death in 1650 shortly after the regicide of Charles I during Cromwell's Protectorate. Thus, he helped lay the groundwork for this Age of Revolution. So Descartes lived from 1596 to 1650. He was a French philosopher and mathematician. He is known as the father of modern philosophy and the father of modern science both. So that's quite a distinction. He was first among three continental rationalists, which included also Leibniz and Spinoza. He wrote his first book, The Discourse on Method, in 1637, and then his Meditations in 1641. His dictum, I think, therefore I am, elevated the mind of man above the revelation of God as a starting point for knowledge, and that's the heart of it. Ironically, Descartes ridiculed autonomy, or self-law, throughout his life, and yet he was the one man who did the most to overthrow or to establish self-law. Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, he noted in The Discourse, for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those most difficult to please in all their matters never desire more of it than they already possess. Thus he tended to view living things as machines and held a mechanistic view of math and science. Descartes believed there were only two substances, one thinking substances, or mind, and substances that are extended into space or body. Descartes tried to explain his mechanistic philosophy one day in court to Sweden's Queen Kristina. She protested she had never seen a watch give birth to baby watches, and Descartes was left speechless before the royal logic, but Isaac Newton was not deterred, and he came out with the laws of physics in 1687 on the foundation laid by Descartes. His bitter struggle between the Catholic throne and the French Huguenots was about 100 years old at this point, and at that time Descartes went into his stove, as the phrase goes, or his room with a stove, or more accurately a furnace, or a wood stove, to receive his cogito in 1619 and 20. And this was the maxim, I think, therefore I am. The struggle in France was philosophical, therefore, as well as military. The Huguenots offered Vendice contra Tyrannos in 1579, and the Catholics offered Descartes. And Descartes was the guiding light by which Rousseau and Voltaire laid a foundation for the bloody revolution in 1789, bloody French revolution. But the main point is that Descartes shifted the starting point for knowledge from man to God, or from God to man. Even Thomas Aquinas had reason in the context of scripture. But here, for the first time in the Christian West, the autonomous human mind is the measure of all things, cut loose from God's revelation. Up until the death of Elizabeth I, everybody, and that was just after the turn of the century, 1604, I think, everybody was still living in the mindset of a world of God's creation. Nearly everybody expressed respect for God, if not belief. It was a spiritual world of God and angels, of the Holy Spirit, demons, dungeons, dragons. James VI of Scotland had even written a book on demonology. In his humble opinion, he was Europe's leading expert on the subject. So slowly the world began to move away from reliance on God and his revelation. And here is the source of Jefferson's self-evident truth in 1775, where he said, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. And notice that there is no reference to God whatsoever, only the fallen mind of man sitting in judgment on all truth. This is a shift to a different source of truth, meaning a shift to a different God and a different perception of reality that took place during the 1600s. So what were the implications for subsequent history? Well, many have challenged Descartes' opening premise, I think, therefore I am. They contend it proves only the existence of thought, but not existence itself. Descartes was a devout Roman Catholic. He thought he was bolstering the Christian faith. Instead, he undid it and freed philosophy from the biblical tether. He turned Anselm's dictum on its head, where Anselm said, I believe, in order that I may understand. Descartes is therefore called a rationalist who starts with truth in the mind, by contrast an empiricist starts with observation of things in the world and draws conclusions from that. As noted, Descartes made many advances in math and science. He discovered analytical geometry. He tried to define the political world with geometric precision. He looked for truth in simple objects rather than complex, atoms rather than God, thus opening the door for Darwin. I resolve to commence, he said, with the examination of the simplest objects. This, plus his focus on the individual mind, led to an atomistic social structure. The individual stands alone against the state and an aloof deistic God. Having performed his necessary creative activity, he retires into the background, leaves the world to function by mechanistic law. Man came to perceive God himself as captive to the laws of his own creation. So make sure that doesn't happen to you and pick up your free copy of Keys to the Classics at greatbiblereset.com. And at this ridiculously low price, you never know when it might be sold out. So get over there right now and get that ordered. And be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe. And we appreciate your rapt attention to class today. And we will see you tomorrow for more about the one and only Rene Descartes.