DISAMBIGUATION OF DESCARTES =========================== Google returns 1 200 000 hits for "descartes is wrong"
Impressing collective effort of "negative thinking", as a Hegelian dialectician would say. "Bottom up" as well to satisfy populists. Actually, more "negative" than "thinking". Random checks of 100 hits show that the Bottom Negative Thinkers don't have the foggiest of what they prattle about. Why this enormous effort? Seems clear. What a satisfaction for a Bottom Negative Thinker, or, as some would say, for a Village Idiot, to feel that he is so much cleverer than Descartes. COGITO ====== Cogito is the most muddled part of this tsunami of fatuity, so for people who try to keep their heads over the flood, its disambiguation may be of some assistance. Let's open a parenthesis: **Words don't carry meaning, but only point to it and often hide it like trees hiding the forest. Meaning emerges in beholder's mind, in his interpretation, or, more often, gets warped or vanishes altogether in his misinterpretation. And the more general and multivalued the words, the more impenetrably they hide the particular meaning intended by the utterer and the more good faith and ingenuity needs the beholder to correctly interpret them. Now, as well "Cogito" itself, as its introductory considerations, are formulated with most multivalued terms culminating in the empty copula "sum" - "am", whose indirect meaning resides far beyond its face value. Henceforth, we shall have to seek the most plausible meaning of involved terms, beyond their often, if not always, misleading face value.** Let's start with the terms of the crucial statement: "Dubito, ergo cogito; cogito, ergo sum", translated verbatim to the apparent nonsense: "I doubt, thus I think; I think, thus I am." "I doubt". What about? In the light of introductory arguments - about the certainty of my assertions. I doubt about the (A)real existence of their objects, due (A1)to sensory illusions and (A2)to the vague separation of dreaming from awakedness. I doubt also about (B)the intrinsic well-foundedness of my assertions, as some "Malignant Demon" may confuse and disarrange their underlying reason. Let's note that "reality" and "existence" of (A) do not refer to any metaphysical, transcendental "beings", but to unambiguous and not daydreamy percepts, objects of knowledge. (B), still less metaphysical, but apparently much more destructive, denies the certainty of a priori deduction and mathematics. It would seem that no assertion, nothing in the whole knowledge can withstand this permanent, overwhelming doubt. But paradoxically this very doubt provided Descartes with the "one thing, that is certain and unshakable", which he was seeking. (**Archimedes used to demand just one firm and immovable point in order to shift the entire earth; so I too can hope for great things if I manage to find just one thing, however slight, that is certain and unshakable.**) Indeed, in order to err, to divagate, to doubt, I must think and, however doubtful its objects, my thought undoubtfully exists. (**cogitatio est**, the rhetoric empty copula implying "exists"). Now, we have seen above that in Cogito's context "existence" has no metaphysical claims, but denotes the certainty of assertions' objects. So "my thought" does not pretend to exist upon some transcendental Olympus, but, more humbly and rationally declares that "my thought and only my thought is certain". But who arbitrates this certainty? Clearly "I", which denotes (my) Awareness. Finally, "Dubito, ergo Cogito" means: ONLY AWARENESS IS CERTAIN. The more famous "Cogito ergo Sum" is, in the light of what we said above, a rhetoric repetition destined to stress the message. Its cryptic empty copula and especially the absense of "dubito" - "I doubt" provokes innumerable superficial, fanciful, metaphysical misinterpretations. Cogito has no metaphysical or ontological claims nor implications. It is strictly confined to Epistemology, where it turned upside down all traditional beliefs in transcendental "objective reality" and established the preponderance of subjectivity in cognition and science, which stayed their cornerstone till our own days. It defined anew "existence/reality" in the way still underlying our contemporary epistemology and science: Exists for me that what I know (with matching (un)certainty) (where "me", "I" imply Awareness). GENERAL IMPACT ============== Addressing the Vienna Circle Popper said: *** "The empirical basis of objective science is *nothing absolute.* [1] Science does not rest on a rockbed. Its towering edifice, an amazingly bold structure of theories, rises over a swamp. The foundations are piers going down into the swamp from above. [2] They do not reach a natural base, but go only as deep as is necessary to carry the structure. One does not stop driving them down because one has reached firm ground. Rather, one resolves to be satisfied with their firmness, hoping they will carry the structure. [3] (If the structure proves too heavy and begins tottering, it sometimes does not help to drive the piers further down. It may be necessary to have a new building, which must be constructed on the ruins of the collapsed structure's piers.) [4] *The objectivity of science can be bought only at the cost of relativity.* (He who seeks the absolute must seek it in the subjective.)" [5] *** This vade mecum of current rational Epistemology could have been written by Descartes: [1] and [5] are compatible with Galilean Relativity armed by Descartes with exact mathematical tools: Cartesian Referentials and algebraized Geometry which founded Calculus and most of modern science. [5] is entirely contained in "Cogito", which turned upside down all traditional beliefs in transcendental "objective reality" and established the preponderance of subjectivity in cognition and science. [2],[3] and [4] illustrate rational deductive/inductive axiomatization such as it has been conceived by Galileo and completed with Cartesian Doubt or Uncertainty. Ergo, standing on the shoulders of Galileo, Descartes simply created the concept and the methodology of science founding all subsequent rational Epistemology till our own days. Unfortunately, rationality is far from dominating our thinking. First Enlightenment did not entirely eradicate its contemporary Dogmatism and soon collapsed under its reactionary assaults. The reaction of Dogmatism went on uninterrupted till our epoch which is dominated by dogmatic obscurantism out of which is timidly emerging the new Rationality of the Second Enlightenment. POSTSCRIPT ========== Besides his crucial impact on epistemology and science, Descartes, as it often happens to scientists, thought up one of the most fatuous ontologies, not worthy the effort of opening the book. It contributes largely to misunderstanding his other prodigious achievements. Georges. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Epistemology" group. 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