Descartes

1. I think this quote is saying that Descartes newfound way of doings things is better because he’s not just relying on what he had known thus far, either old method s/ old ways of thinking, or previous conceived ideas from his youth that he probably just assumed were true. It sounds like now he is looking to discover truth in a different manor rather than believe everything he had previously known or heard and assumed to be true. Wikipedia’s interpretation of this quote says that he’s not necessarily ruling out what he has previously known but just open to discovering new truths, which may or may not be the case. If he is switching his method does he throw the baby out with the bath water? If he is no longer using a method that relies on or builds upon previous thoughts /ideas/ knowledge does this mean he no longer thinks those thoughts / ideas are true? I’m not sure. He either is going to throw everything he had previously known out the window and start over fresh and true knowledge can only come by this new method OR he is looking at the process and method of gaining knowledge and not the knowledge itself and throwing out the old method of depending on past notions which is weak or unreliable and choosing this other method that is more efficient in gaining knowledge.

2. His method of science he uses to gain knowledge has four precepts. The first is to only accept what he can be absolutely sure of and if there is any doubt- throw it out, also to avoid prejudice or biased notions. The second is to break things down as much as possible to dissect and examine each part of whatever it is he’s examining.
The third is to do things in order from the simplest to the more complicated. And the fourth is to make diagrams, charts, lists etc to organize data clearly.


3. I wasn’t sure exactly where in this article Shorto stated a direct relationship between religion and the scientific method. By best guess would be that he thought the two were mutually opposed and in conflict with one another.

4. The great controversy that continues today is religion vs. science / faith vs. reason. People who believe in culture based unquestionable faith and people who use science to prove atheism.

5. The Descartes method threatened traditional ways of thinking that were centered on religion. It did this by introducing new ways of thought that were based more on reason and science.

6. I think she used the word modernity to explain that these days are more focused on reasoning and scientific methods as opposed to traditionalism when people based thoughts on faith and religion.

7. Shorto thinks the proposal of “The Discourse on the Method for Rightly Conducting the Reason” is to introduce a method that based knowledge on human reason rather than biblical principles.



8. Writing the discourse in French rather than Latin most likely had a major social effect during that time. It sent a powerful message to the community inviting them to be involved in such discourse and to stop blindly relying on and trusting the authority of the church.

9. Shorto’s thoughts on Descartes importance in forming the modern world is that he single handedly introduced a new way of thinking that opposed traditional ways of thinking based in religion. Descartes own personal inquiries of life, his path of discovery and enlightenment became the basis for modern thought and the scientific method. Shorto said, “he was creating a way of understanding the world that didn’t need faith”


10. I’m not sure if Shorto is fully correct in his interpretation, he is mostly correct in Descartes influence on our modern world but I think it’s misleading for Shorto or anyone else to sort of pit Descartes and religion itself against one another and that’s what people have done. Of course reason and faith are on two totally different spectrums but I think it’s wrong to say one would cancel out the other. From what I read it seems Descarte was not totally overthrowing the idea that there was or there could exist a God but he was more focused on the process or method of gaining knowledge. His new process of inquiry is something I think most adolescence deal with when questioning what they were taught about life, religion etc. It’s an important step into adulthood to question authority in order to gain your own perspective; even in religion it’s important to not believe something to be true just because someone told you it was so. You have to discover truth yourself. Anyways…… I think Descartes was very influential in introducing the scientific method but I do not agree that this rules out the possible existence of God or that reason destroys faith. When it comes to understanding the world around us science is efficient for gaining knowledge but there are other aspects in life that is out of science’s reach and that’s where faith comes in.