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The way Descartes chose to write this piece literature captivated me. Descartes was a very intelligent man who wanted to make sense of the world he lived in. The format he used was unusual. It seems to me that he may have used this format, which is a replication of the book of Genesis in the Bible, to have a deeper and more profound impact on the reader. There are many similarities between Descartes’ Meditations and the first book of the Bible, Genesis. For example, Descartes’ Meditations was written one day at a time, just as God had created the world one day at a time. Furthermore, the order Descartes’ daily writings took resembled the same order the Bible had for the creation of the world.
Meditation One in Meditations coincides with day one of God’s creation of the world. In the Bible, “God divided the light from the darkness.” (Bible Gen. 1:3) In Descartes’ work, day one consisted of separating our senses from reality. “[T]here are no definitive signs by which to distinguish being awake from being asleep.” (Descartes 352) Descartes is actually questioning whether or not the bodies we reside in actually exist or if we are in a continual dream state. I feel that Descartes’ intent in his first entry was to establish a certain state of mind for reading and understanding the remainder of his work. This included, mainly, a separation from our senses as a means of acquiring knowledge and being more open to all possibilities. He firmly maintains that our senses mislead us and we must put them aside in order to see a thing or an event for what it really is. This suggests that all things currently known to us as humans can be called into doubt, including our very physical bodies. This meditation differs from day one in Genesis in the fact that Descartes is questioning our physical bodies. The issue of our physical bodies can be argued in day seven of God’s creation, when He created man in His own image.
Meditation Two in Meditations discusses the nature of the human mind. According to the Bible, on the second day of creation, “God made the firmament, and divided the waters from the waters. God called the firmament Heaven.” (Bible Gen. 1:6) Descartes demonstrates his belief that the mind is free. This meditation is my favorite. In the beginning of it, Descartes seems so confused and lost. He questions every little thing around him and within himself. I recall a time in my own life when I felt like that. It was scary when I read this, for it brought back some very terrible memories of my time going through menopause! I, too, had questioned some of the exact same things he was questioning. My doctor informed me that I had a chemical imbalance in my brain due to the lack of estrogen my body was used to. Given my own personal experience, I see Descartes’ meditation in two ways. Perhaps Descartes also had some mental disorders, or else my doctor was wrong and I had reason to feel the way I felt. Perhaps the lack of estrogen in my system made me see things more clearly. I seriously doubt the latter explanation. However, in this meditation, Descartes is separating the mind from the brain, just as God had separated the waters and sky, and created Heaven. I think this meditation was, in almost every way, similar to day two in Genesis. In Genesis the waters and sky were separated. Both the waters and the sky are within the world. Unlike the waters or the sky, Heaven is an abstract thing. In Descartes’ analogy, the mind and the brain are both a part of a human being and they, too, are being separated. Unlike the physicality of the brain, the mind is abstract.
Meditation Three in Meditations is Descartes’ opinion of whether or not God exists. Although he claims that he believes in God, he states that, “I do not yet sufficiently know whether there even is a God.” (Descartes 358) He also states, “I understand what a thing is, what truth is, what thought is, and I appear to have derived this exclusively from my very own nature.” (Descartes 358) Throughout most of the third meditation, Descartes gives reasons why he should not believe in God. However, he claims God does exist because the idea of God exists. Descartes believes that the idea that God exists had to have been brought into being by God Himself. In the Book of Genesis, God separates the land from the sea on the third day. I think Descartes’ rationalization in his meditation is similar to the third day of creation in that God showed land on the third day, and Descartes discovered God on the third day. I think this relationship could be interpreted to mean that land is to earth and life what God is to man.
Meditation Four in Descartes’ writing concerns truth and falsity. On this fourth day, Descartes deals with perception to a large extent. It is as if his perceptions determine what is real and what is not. He seems upset with the fact that God did not create him as a perfect human, incapable of err. God, being perfect in all respects, should have created man perfect as well, but He didn’t. Descartes states many times in this section, “I have no cause for complaint on the grounds that God has given me a greater power of understanding, greater light of nature, or a will that has a wider scope….” (Descartes 367) Descartes goes on to state, “I have come to know with certainty only that I and God exist…” (Descartes 365) While reading this, I felt as if Descartes was literally trying to convince himself that there is a God. The fourth day of creation in the Bible, “God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.” (Bible Gen. 1:16) I believe the relationship between day four in the Bible and day four in Descartes’ writing is that there are at least two different ways of seeing things (day or night.) How people perceive something will greatly affect the way they feel about it and react to it.
Meditation Five in Descartes’ writing is about the essence of material things and the existence of God. To be honest, I find the next two sections of this work to be almost exactly the same as the first four. The major difference in the last two sections of his work is that he uses different examples to demonstrate the same thing as the first four sections. The fifth meditation relates to the fifth day of creation in the Bible in that they both deal with the essence of material things rather than thoughts, feelings, or ideas. In the Bible, living creatures and plants are created on the fifth day. In Descartes’ Meditations, he questions the difference between his own thoughts and things that do or do not exist. Finally, Descartes is convinced that the truth and certainty of all science depends upon the knowledge of the true God. By coming to this realization, Descartes now believes he is capable of attaining perfect knowledge about anything. This belief is based upon his understanding of mathematics.
The Sixth Meditation concerns the existence of material things and the distinction between mind and body. On the sixth day of creation God created man. Descartes says he is a “thinking thing” and his essence consists entirely in his being a thinking thing. He also came to the conclusion that he does not need his body to survive. He believes he has a soul and that his soul, being separate from his body, can survive without his body. His findings on this day uphold the story in the Bible. Not only did God create man in the physical sense, but in a spiritual sense as well.
In conclusion, there is an excellent quotation I’d like to share that I felt really summed up the entire writing. “Hence I should no longer fear that those things that are daily shown me by the senses are false. On the contrary, the hyperbolic doubts of the last few days ought to be rejected as ludicrous.” (Descartes 377) The thought processes Descartes used and the ideas he came up with were very interesting - for a while. However, I feel that he just “rattled on and on,” saying the same thing repeatedly in a different way. Furthermore, would it not stand to reason from the above quotation that the entire writing had no purpose except to satisfy his own curiosities? Or could that statement have been made just to soothe the people that the writing was intended for? By the time I finished reading the selection, I had hoped that on the seventh day, Descartes went to seek professional psychological help!
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Of the philosophers I have studied, Socrates stands out to me from all the rest. Although I would be the first to confess that I have never put forth the time nor the effort necessary to consider myself a philosopher (at least not in the sense that I imagine most would consider to be the credentials of a philosopher), my philosophy about life is most closely aligned with what I understand Socrates philosophical beliefs to be. Although there are some distinct differences in what I believe to be the ultimate meaning behind life, which I will later address, I believe his thoughts on how one should live their life to be the wisest of any philosopher we have studied. First, let me relate what I understand Socrates philosophy to be. Socrates believed that we all have a soul. He believed that we are to live our life by principles, and that these principles should be what is considered to be good. He was convinced that there were moral absolutes, a right and a wrong, his reason being that if there weren’t everything would just be relative. This seems most logical. Also, according to Socrates, in order to find which standards we should live by we should test these standards in real life situation to see if they are right or wrong. From what I understand, we are to live our lives according to rights and wrongs - in our dealings with others, and our private life as well. And, this is all in order to be living according to the dictates of the soul, if you will, and not by the desires of the flesh. One of the most interesting ideas Socrates had, I believe, were his thoughts regarding the “true philosopher.” He said that the true philosopher is often misunderstood by other men, that they do not understand that his whole life is the pursuit of death. And, that when death finally comes he does not meet it with dread, but with the acceptance of understanding that the soul is finally to be unencumbered of the body and all its evils. The soul will finally meet truth away from the constraints of an imperfect body. He believed that the soul is immortal and imperishable. He believed that “good souls” departed to an invisible world where happiness is secured and they are free of human folly and error, and of all the problems that normally plague us. Evil souls, on the other hand will wander about in misery paying their penalty until they are reincarnated to a form fitting of their former evil ways in life. And, although I do not believe this view, I appreciate it for the thought and logic behind it. I am intrigued with the way Socrates can look beyond the physical, and make reality of the spiritual aspect while holding no allegiance to any certain god or gods. I can agree with his philosophy regarding living our lives in an effort to be good, and cherishing the soul above the body, and placing all emphasis on the soul and not on the body. Although we cannot scientifically prove that the soul is imperishable - or beyond that, if we even have a soul, but we do know that the body is only temporary, so it seems logical to place importance on something beyond the physical. I think Socrates reasoning behind the evidence of our souls, is brilliant even if incorrect - which I am in no means implying. His idea of anamnesis/recollect intrigues me. Where would we have any idea of perfection, if not from our souls? Certainly anything from the body or physical has yet to show us any form of perfection. For the sake of relating to the reader why I think Socrates philosophy could contribute much to human well being, let me take a moment to relay my thoughts or “philosophy” on life. I agree with Socrates on the stand he makes that nothing good or perfect can ever come from the physical. Pleasing the desires of the flesh always results in only temporary happiness, and even then it is questionable if it is a real happiness, or just a temporary source of satisfaction. Socrates said that the soul is where we can know perfection, and that the important things of this life lie in living for the development or realization of the soul, and that through proper development of the mind in its pursuit of truth, beauty and goodness that the goal and purpose of human life can be achieved. I personally believe that yes, we all possess a soul, and that yes it is good to live for the eternal and not the present. However, I believe that personally we can have not have a good soul, on our own. Human nature alone, I believe would support this. We are not essentially good creatures as can be supported by the fact that if we were, we would not be plagued with hate, dissension, and strife in our world. I would go on to say then that we must find apart from ourselves a righteousness that can heal our souls, and bring them into the light, because we are imperfect and incomplete of our own to ever fully realize truth, beauty, and goodness. I realize that philosophy deals with reason, and that perhaps authority should not be used, but I hold to the truths found in 1 Peter 2:24 which reads “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” So you see, in and of ourselves we are sinful creatures - soul included, but in “He,” meaning Jesus Christ, we have been made complete. Socrates view of how life should be lived, except for my reliance on a personal savior for salvation, lies very closely beside my beliefs in the area of what should be made of importance in our lives. Matthew 6:25 reads “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” This is the philosophy of Socrates, that why worry with these things? What will they matter when you die? Is it not more important to focus instead on lasting things and things that will have an eternal reward, and bring true happiness in this lifetime. I believe Socrates would probably agree with Jesus Christ, although probably in different terms, when he said in Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves in treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So you see, it is because Socrates philosophy lie so very close to the beliefs of my faith, that I believe his philosophy could be a balm to the worlds problems. Too many of us, myself not excluded, put so much importance on things that don’t account for much at all. What a person wears, what a person drives, or how a person looks is placed far above things such as honesty, integrity, love, and other virtues. We are society I believe to have been so blessed and made so rich that we have forgotten the joy that can be found in hard work, loving someone, and the simple pleasures in life. I wonder sometimes if many people could be happy if they were alone. The physical wouldn’t matter much then, at least beyond what is needed for a comfortable existence. All they would be left with is self, and whatever they have in their soul to be happy or sad about. If society were to try to readjust itself to Socrates way of life, it would be such a huge reform. But it would be, I think, a very comfortable reform; it would be like hearing an old favorite song, or like remembering something we know we should have never forgotten. Such a reform wouldn’t be just like a decision to suddenly “live in the clouds,” we would just learn and finally realize what we have been missing. I don’t ever expect to see such a change in society, because it is such a personal thing, it is an entirely different way of seeing things, and would warrant entirely different behavior. It isn’t something that a government could mandate, it isn’t something that can be done so to speak, its more of a lifestyle change; it can’t be faked. I believe that Socrate’s philosophy could be the solution to a lot of the worlds problems. Things such as racism, jealousy, and greed, and materialism all appear so trite when you look at it in regards to the soul, and humanity could learn to be at peace with itself. Socrates, stating that he was not greedy for life, was willing to die for what he believed to be the truth. Socrates said he spent his whole life getting ready for death, let us all hope we have found the truths that will leave us at peace when we are to die.
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