A la Descartes

So, I grabbed Descartes: Philosophical Essays off the shelf in our library yesterday and sat down to read it. We had picked up a paperback copy at a church rummage sale that we stopped by not long after we moved out here to Massachusetts. It looked interesting, and was in remarkably good shape for a 20-year old paperback--no bent corners, markings, highlighting, or water/mold damage.

Anyway, so on the shelf it sat, next to other important looking books like The Dilbert Principle, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Road Less Travelled, and 536 Puzzles and Curious Problems. But, something in me wanted to take a peek inside, so I did.

I found the opening pages of his essay Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences to be both refreshing and enlightening. So far, I am only about 20 pages in to this essay, and, while I'm not sure that I'll agree with what I continue to read, I couldn't not share some of these opening gems and my thoughts.

Good sense is mankind's most equitably divided endowment, for everyone thinks that he is so abundantly provided with it that even those with the most insatiable appetites and most difficult to please in other ways do not usually want more than they have of this. As it is not likely that everyone is mistaken, this evidence shows that the ability to judge correctly, and to distinguish the true from the false--which is really what is meant by good sense or reason--is the same by innnate nature in all men; and that differences of opinion are not due to differences in intelligence, but merely to the fact that we use different approaches and consider different things. For it is not enough to have a good mind: one must use it well. The greatest souls are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues; and those who walk slowly can, if they follow the right path, go much farther than those who run rapidly in the wrong direction.

As for myself, I have never supposed that my mind was above the ordinary. On the contrary, I have often wished to have as quick a wit or as clear and distinct an imagination, or as ready and retentitve a memory, as another person. And I know of no other qualities which make for a good mind, because as far as reason is concerned, it is the only thing which makes us men and distinguishes us from the animals, and I am therefore satisfied that it is fully present in each one of us.

First, I was intrigued by (what I take to be) his sense of humor in the opening lines. Perhaps the Darwin Awards are outlandish examples of individuals who "do not want more [good sense] than they have" and think they are "so abundantly provided with it." But, then again, I think all of us--Darwin Award winners or not--suffer from the occasional thought that we have enough and don't need any more. (Something similar comes to mind...).

Moving along, I thought his discussion the ability of men to distinguish "true from false" has echoes of the concept of the Light of Christ. In fact, Descartes uses a phrase a few pages later in this essay, "the light of nature," which the translator duly notes as:

The "light of nature" was to Descartes and to writers of the Renaissance generally a mental faculty given to man by God for the immediate apprehension of truth.

Cool, huh? This was something that I found refreshing; that the minds of man have been inspired, have expressed [the outlines of] correct principles, and that revelation of truth comes both within and without the Church [N.B. please not truth with a small "t", and not that Eternal Truth, necessary for salvation, which is revealed through the Lord's servants].

Next, his comments regarding a "good mind" brought me back, in my mind, to one of my favorite classes at college: Honors English, taught by Murray Hunt. In that class, we discussed principles of "thinking right" and of using our minds. Surely one must use a good mind well. And I thought Descartes' comments on great souls and walking slowly illuminating.

The next paragraph reminded me of a Hymn that I like, "Know This, That Every Soul Is Free." As Descartes discussed reason making men different from animals, this line from the hymn came to mind:

Freedom and reason make us men; Take these away, what are we then? Mere animals, ...

As the essay continues, Descartes speaks of living "in a world of books." Of his studies, he said, "I knew that the languages which one learns are necessary to understand the works of the ancients." This drew to my mind the writings of Nephi, who said that he had been taught in the learnings and the language of his father; and of the words of King Benjamin, who also taught the connection between learning languages and gaining knowledge. We, too, are taught in the languages and learnings of our "fathers," and can therefore be privy to the thoughts and teachings of great people.

"The reading of all the great books," says Descartes, "is like conversing with the best people of earlier times: it is even a studied conversation in which the authors show us only the best of their thoughts."

Have you had a conversation with a great mind lately?