DESCARTES - INFLUENCES

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>DESCARTES</FONT><BR> THE RATIONALIST</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Influences</B></FONT><P> Descartes' redefinition of man as a thinking being determined how western man has thought of himself to this day.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>SCIENTIFIC MAN</B></FONT><BR> Descartes laid the foundations of mathematical physics by claiming that the physical world is knowable by the absolutely true laws of geometry and mechanics. Scientific advances had shed new light on the universe, and Descartes embraced the new scientific knowledge. How much more could man now learn about the universe! The astronomy of Copernicus had displaced earth as the centre of the universe. Man's perspective on his place in the universe inevitably altered. Man had to redefine himself in the light of new scientific knowledge, and Descartes would be the first to attempt this. But these were new ideas and this was a dangerous enterprise. Galileo had been condemned by the Inquisition for support of the Copernican system. Descartes stopped publication of his scientific treatise, "The World", to avoid a similar fate. Once started, the domination of the scientific method over western thinking became an unstoppable force despite reactions against it by the <A HREF="../t03/g046.html" TARGET="_top">Romantics</A>.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>THE DANGER OF FAME ?</B></FONT><BR> Descartes achieved much acclaim even during his own lifetime, not a common fate among philosophers. It was to prove his downfall. Summoned to Stockholm by Sweden's Queen Christina, he was required to tutor the young queen in philosophy at 5 a.m. each morning, He fell victim to the cold winter and died of pneumonia less than a year after his arrival.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE</B></FONT><BR> He was not without his opponents however. His insistence that true knowledge could only be gained through reason and not through use of the senses inspired the development of an opposing British school of <A HREF="../t03/g030.html" TARGET="_top">materialist</A> thinkers who placed doubt on our ability to gain absolute knowledge. His separation of the mind and the body also sparked a debate that has never been fully resolved. As late as 1977, an eminent neurophysiologist and the famous philosopher, <A HREF="../t06/t06f21.html" TARGET="_top">Sir Karl Popper</A>, maintained that Descartes was essentially correct in making a distinction between the "self", the conscious being that is me and is non-physical, and the nervous system which is part of the physical being. It is more common today, however for philosophers to speak in terms of "attributive <A HREF="../t03/g010.html" TARGET="_top">dualism</A>". This is a sort of watered down version which doesn't see the mind as an actual separate entity but speaks of two distinct sets of properties or entities - psychological (thoughts, feelings) and physiological (nerves and nerve impulses). <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>