Descartes and the possibility of science (Q2735598)

With the wholesale rejection of tradition in combination with the conviction that the starting point for all thinking - the Archimedean point - lies within the individual mind, Descartes marks the beginning of modern philosophy. Moreover, in Descartes' view mankind can improve its condition by means of an active intervention in nature by means of science. This requires the development of science. The author, a philosopher, deals with Descartes' concept of human nature in relation with the possibilities to make advances in science. He concentrates in particular on the essential role of the power of intellectual imagination in this process and the aspect of the free will. Descartes' intellectual imagination is pure intellect and it functions apart from the body. It should be distinguished from corporeal imagination. Chapter 2 of the book is devoted to Descartes' dualism of mind and body which is necessary for the free will and the intellectual imagination to function. Chapter 3 deals with Descartes' logic of discovery: the controled use of the imagination is essential, for example, in the generation of possibilities. Chapter 4 is about the role of intellectual imagination in metaphysics. For example, God is unimaginable through mere corporeal imagination. In chapter 5 the author emphasises that intellectual imagination was in different ways crucial to Descartes' invention of analytic geometry. It makes it possible to work with hypothetical solutions through the use of symbols whose values are unknown. The symbols possess a power that goes beyond what is imagineable or constructable on paper and thus enables mathematics to pass beyond euclidean space or even - in the case of negative numbers - beyond our power of understanding, according to Schouls. In chapter 6 the author shows how Descartes argued that human nature is really what it should be in order to improve our condition through science. According to Descartes the two aspects of the human essence, freedom and reason, are such that an ever expanding mastery over nature is quite possible.