Essay: Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting one’s Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences

In part four of the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting one’s Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences, René Descartes, discusses the existence of the God and the soul. With these two elements the awareness of the nature of the dreams and the unreliability of the senses are discussed, contemplating that the author becomes aware of the process of thinking of his own and judge them. The author assesses the element of thinking and self-assessment in reality and question is to be correct or not. This leads the author to the awareness of his existence: I think, therefore I exist.

The further section explores the body and the soul as separate elements. The author highlights that the body is based on the unreliability of the senses. The imperfection discusses I the part four make the author realize that he is imperfect but he also assesses that he is able to judge that he is in fact imperfect which leads him to the conclusion that there is something pure and good and made within perfection that exists outside him and that is the God (Descartes, 1980). With this he learn how his imperfection are attached it his body and how the soul is also part of the life he has and the soul is the reflection of the God and the creation of Him.

He learns how the soul and the body are separate but also connected in many ways and effect the human perception and understanding regarding the realization of the imperfection within himself. The Existence of God is the symbol that the good and perfection is there that helps assess and realize the difference between him as imperfect and something that is not to compare it with. The author reason that all good things are attached with the God and this statement must be true because the element of God is clear, perfecta and free of distinct thoughts and any doubts.

The author is able to convince the readers of the concept he has shared with step by step realization that he has been through. He first rejects what he has known in his life contemplating that what he has known was not true. This opens him to the reasons and possibility that he is not in true perfect or that what he believed about himself is not completely discovered within him (Descartes& Cottingham, 2013). Then he assesses the elements of imperfection that leads him to the realization that he has the ability to judge or compare himself and his imperfections through the higher standards or the element of God.

There is a glimpse of the author suggesting the attachment between the God and the soul that he discusses is a separate element from the body. His assessment of the body as imperfect shows the connection with the world as well where the imperfection is conceived while the all good and pure is actually linked with the soul and that is the creation of the God or a reflection of the God.

Reference

Descartes, R. (1980). Discourse on the method of rightly conducting one’s reason and of seeking truth in the sciences.

Descartes, R., & Cottingham, J. (2013). René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies. Cambridge University Press.