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Pragmatic Point: The Failure of the Cartesian Method of Doubt December 6, 2009 Created By: Categories:   Tags:  , , , , , , , , In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes utilizes a method of doubt in order to determine whether or not there is any such thing as certainty. The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce later critiques Descartes not necessarily on the basis of what many other philosophers find fault with in Descartes, but rather on the very method of doubt itself. While there appears to be plenty of room for debate about whether or not Peirce is fair to Descartes with respect to parts of Descartes’ method of doubt, Peirce is justified in the main point of his critique which is to point out that Descartes is not utilizing any form of doubt involved in true inquiry like that of which Peirce writes.               Descartes attempts to demonstrate the truth of metaphysical claims about God, souls, and certainty. He wants to prove these by using a method of doubtwhich he was apparently surprised by when he was much younger. Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. (Descartes 12)  When Descartes writes that he was “struck”, he implies at least a bit of surprise on his part when it came to discovering not just the falsehood of some of the minor beliefs he adhered to, but a “large number” of substantial beliefs which provided the foundation for an “edifice” of other beliefs. (Descartes 12) If one takes him at his word, Descartes is completely undone by the doubt he has encountered and in his Meditations finally been able to further cultivate. So serious are the doubts into which I have been thrown as a result of yesterday’s meditation that I can neither put them out of my mind nor see any way of resolving them. It feels as if I have fallen unexpectedly into a deep whirlpool which tumblesme around so that I can neither stand on the bottom nor swim up to the top. (Descartes 16) Imagery of a deep whirlpool certainly serves to encourage the sentiment that Descartes finds himself genuinely lost. Likewise there is an apparent sincerity in Descartes by virtue of his mentioning the potential for finding no certainty at all at the end of his project. Anything which admits of the slightest doubt I will set aside just as if I had found it to be wholly false; and I will proceed in this way until I recognize something certain, or, if nothing else, until I at least recognize for certain that there is no certainty. (Descartes 16) Given that Descartes’ method of doubt truly does aim for the foundations upon which the rest of his beliefs rest, this would sufficiently demolish all of his beliefs, leaving him with nothing he states that he has set out to accomplish. Unfortunately stating the things which he sets out to accomplish does not necessarily comport with a desire to beintellectually honest but instead makes it seem as though he will stop at nothing to satisfy himself with a rationalization of previously held beliefs, which is precisely what Peirce accuses the metaphysicians of doing. (Buchler 2, 228)             Why Descartes would so explicitly state his motivations and then act as though he sincerely sets out to destroy his beliefs is a puzzling question. In spite of the apparent sincerity of doubt already discussed, Descartes’ earlier letter to the Sorbonne makes him look at least somewhat dishonest in his methodology. It should not be forgotten that Descartes thinks, “demonstrative proofs ought to be given with the aid of philosophy” so that unbelievers can accept, “that the human soul does not die with the body, and that God exists”. (Descartes 3) This he hopes to show through “natural reason”, and so he enters into doubt already having a clearly established goal in mind. (Descartes 3) His doubt is a farce because it is only used as a means toaccomplish a previously determined end.             Descartes proceeds to find certainty starting with radical skepticism which is employed in order to defeat the skeptic in terms of certainty and religious doctrine. What I have done is to take merely the principal and most important arguments and to develop them in such a way that I would now venture to put them forward as very certain and evident demonstrations. I will add that these proofs are of such a kind that I reckon they leave no room for the possibility that the human mind will ever discover better ones. (Descartes 4)  Further evidence that Descartes is not really out to encounter what will shake his beliefs to the core comes from his ignoring other potential skeptical arguments in order to get on to his own contrived versions. For example, he glosses over the possibility that he is insane. Again, how could it be denied that these hands or this whole body are mine? Unless perhaps I were to liken myself to madmen, whose brainsare so damaged by the persistent vapours of melancholia that they firmly maintain they are kings when they are paupers, or say they are dressed in purple when they are naked, or that their heads are made of earthenware, or that they are pumpkins, or made of glass. But such people are insane, and I would be thought equally mad if I took anything from them as a model for myself. (Descartes 13)  Descartes remains safe while clinging to his cherished beliefs and pursues doubt only as a sort of imagined problem rather than something which will actually influence his behavior. He is only pretending, and feels quite safe. I think it will be a good plan to turn my will in completely the opposite direction and deceive myself, by pretending for a time that these former opinions are utterly false and imaginary… In the meantime, I know that no danger or error will result from my plan, and that I cannot possibly go too far in my distrustful attitude. This is because the task now in hand does not