IDEALISM OF DESCARTES
The term idealism in its broadest sense denotes the philosophical position that ideas are primary and lie at the very foundation of reality, knowledge, and morality, while non-ideal entities are secondary and perhaps even illusory. Strands of idealistic thought can be found in ancient and medieval philosophy, but modern idealism begins in the wake of Rene Descartes, whose method of doubt problematized the relation of the mind to the material world and thus raised questions about how ideas "inside" the mind can be known to interact with or correspond to any material, extended thing "outside" the mind.
Descartes deals with issues of Idealism when he encounters the Dream Argument; in it he ponders whether reality or life itself is imaginary and unreal. He argues that sometimes when he dreams, his dreams are "as real as his waking life," and that it is difficult to know whether he is sleeping or dreaming and hence the line between the two is blurred to the extent that no clear distinction exists between the two. Furthermore, he asks the question, "How do I know that I know."
Descartes believes that the world could very well be a creation of our mind; he also happens to believe that he as person is real and therefore exists. This seems contradictory and self-defeating, but Descartes has some very sound arguments to make. Descartes now popular phrase, "I think, therefore I am," presents a case of realism which is a welcome break from the overall idealistic nature of Meditations. To explain this point, Descartes argues that, "doubt is a kind mode of thought; so, I cannot doubt that I think- I can't think that I don't think; and so, I exist as a thinking thing."
Descartes also further argues that he can doubt the existence of the physical world but not his own. "He concludes that his self or mind or soul must be an immaterial being." According to Descartes, the mind is "chuck full of innate ideas and rational principles which God put there and which determine that we judge in the ways that we do." Hence, Descartes credits God for giving him faculties and ability to know about things and also alleges that God will not allow him to be deceived. This ability to perceive things as endowed by God is what he takes as his reason for perceiving material objects. He further claims, "This faculty of imagination is that which enables me to form ideas of objects at particular time." To differentiate minds from physical bodies, Descartes argues that minds don't have size and shape are hence not "divisible" which leads him to conclude that "minds must be immaterial."
Descartes explains that the First Meditation describes how it is possible to have an attitude of doubt about the nature of all things; the Second Meditation explains how the mind discovers that it must necessarily exist, and explains how the mind can have a concept of the soul; the Third Meditation provides a proof of the existence of God; the Fourth Meditation describes the difference between truth and error; the Fifth Meditation provides another proof for the existence of God; and the Sixth Meditation describes how knowledge of the human mind and of how the mind can be guided by God leads to valid knowledge of material objects and of the physical world.
A criticism that may be made of how Descartes explains that knowledge is possible of material things is that his assertion that the world may be created by God exactly as we perceive it does not prove that the world is in fact created exactly as we perceive it.
Descartes says that we can know true reality when we have clear and distinct ideas. Clear and distinct ideas prove the existence of God. But the existence of God proves the validity of clear and distinct ideas. These statements are not adequately defined or validated He also says that we cannot be deceived in our perceptions by God, but he admits that our own perceptual or intellectual limitations can cause us to be deceived by the appearances of material things. Descartes' subjectivism, method of systematic doubt, and view of metaphysical dualism regarding mind and body were an important influence on the development of philosophy.
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