Meditacions metafísiques (1641)

لعلّ أكثر أقوال الفلاسفة شهرة واقتباساً هو قول ديكارت «أنا أفكر، فأنا موجود». لكن ما هو حقيقةً مدى المعرفة به وبنظرياته خارج الأوساط الأكاديمية؟ محدود جداً، إن لم يكن معدوماً.
هنا يأتي دور ”تأملات في الفلسفة الأولى“ الذي يشرح المفاهيم الأساسية المحتواة في أشهر أعمال ديكارت الفلسفية، والتي بقراءتها يصبح الاقتباس السابق أكثر منطقية ووضوحاً.

يركّز ديكارت على عدم كفاية الحواس لفهم العالم، فهي كثيراً ما تخدعنا ولا يمكن من خلالها التماس اليقين في معظم الأحيان. العقل وحده يصل إلى ما تعجز عنه الحواس ويثبت اليقين الوحيد، الوجود. بحسب ديكارت، فإن جميع الأشياء في الكون "موجودة" في ثلاثة مستويات: المستوى الأعلى هو لما ندركه بالعقل وحده (كالرياضيات)، يليه ما يصلنا بالحواس ولا يد لنا به (كحرارة النار)، وآخرها هي المفاهيم التخيلية المخترعة التي لا وجود لها في الواقع.
يصل ديكارت إلى خلاصة مفادها أنه بما أننا نعطي الأشياء واقعيتها بتفكيرنا بها، وأنّ هذه القدرة المتأصلة على التفكير والتعقّل بالأمور نملكها منذ الولادة، فلا بد أن تكون قد أعطيت لنا من كائن على مستوى أعلى من الوجود. فلا شيء يمكنه أن يتسبب بشيء آخر بدون أن يكون موجوداً ويحمل نفس الصفة. على سبيل المثال، لاشيء بدون حرارة (كالنار) يمكنه مد شيء آخر بالحرارة. وهذا كان دليل ديكارت على وجود الإله. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، وبما أن العقل موجود على مستوى أعلى من أي شيء مادي، فالعقل والجسم مستقلان وجودياً عن بعضهما، وهكذا يستمر العقل أو "الروح" بالوجود بعد فناء الجسد.

طبعاً لا يمكن الحكم على فلسفة ديكارت إلا ضمن الإطار الزمني الذي نشأت خلاله، ورغم مآخذي الكثيرة عليها (وبالأخص حجته الواهية على وجود الإله) وجدت نفسي معجباً بفكره السابق لعصره. ( )

Reading this gave me a perception that Descartes argument for the existence of God, or really anything past Meditation Two, is paper-thin.

And to anyone who disagrees, know that this perception of mine was clear & distinct, so therefore it must be true. ( )

Descartes' project is more usefully undetstood as a changing shift in philosophical method. ( )

My feelings about this book are a bit complicated.

Let's start with the broad positives:

First, there's the fact that Rene Descartes achieved something monumental in this work, specifically regarding probably the first conclusive metaphysical examination of apodictic recognition of self-existence that has survived the passage of time. His elaboration of the idea is, I believe, deeply underappreciated, particularly since the rise of popular postmodernist materialism and those who become its adherents only by way of faddish self-conscious image cultivation. The frequency with which I encounter supposedly astute intellectuals who miss the real significance of the Cartesian ontological self examination due to self-conscious philosophical jadedness is deeply dismaying. Rene Descartes has, in part through subsequent commentaries that improve the form of the argument buried in the rambling Meditations, provided a succinct and lucid foundation that impressively fortifies any philosophical reasoning that can benefit from it.

Second, this is a relatively well-structured presentation of the Meditations, plus selected Objections and Replies. The informative footnotes, integration of information from both Latin and French original editions, and cross-referencing footnotes are all helpfully presented for the sake of keeping track of, and understanding, the material. It offers essential context in a pair of introductory commentaries.

This is important work, and deserves attention and (in the case of Rene's enduring contribution) a better reputation from students and scholars of philosophy.

Now, the negatives:

The introductory commentaries seem written from the perspective of someone who assumes a certain amount of formal philosophical scholarship, so the target audience is clear. I believe they might be more helpful, as written, following the primary material rather than before it. Some amount of context establishment is important before diving into the Meditations themselves, but as written I think much of the significance of preceding analysis is lost by the time a first-time reader of the Meditations actually gets to the addressed sections of Rene's work.

The manner of labelling the selected Objections and Replies after the primary text is more difficult to follow than would be ideal. In particular, additional notes (presented with the Objection instead of solely in the introductory material at the beginning of the book) about who is behind each Objection could offer substantial improvement in readers' ability to understand the perspectives of the writers.

I would like to see a commentary on Meditations that addresses the particulars of the strength of each argument, for the sake of the introductory reader; this book does not offer that. There are deeply flawed arguments, genuinely important questions, and quite effective arguments against parts of Rene's elaborations in Meditations that arise, and among Rene's Replies I find a similarly wide range of positive and negative in the reasoning. One source of Objections in particular ranges between attacks on the Meditations that are petty and superficial at times, and those that are thoroughly well-reasoned at other times -- where Rene tends to handle the former acerbically and condescendingly but with excellent reasoning clarity, and tends to handle the latter acerbically and condescendingly without any meaningful substance to his arguments.

Finally, while the rigor of Rene's reasoning varies wildly after (very slowly) reaching the important apodictism of the Cogito (the famous "I think, therefore I am" statement, less succinct than that in Meditations), much of even the best reasoning to follow that is largely wasted except as a demonstration of the skill, because of intervening flaws in logic and unexamined assumptions.

Overall, the importance of Rene's contributions to metaphysical philosophy -- both in concrete foundations for later work and in methodological practice -- are monumental, and all too often overlooked for their value, but the "negatives" I mentioned above make reading this a less than ideal experience, at some times frustrating, at others tedious. An attentive and honest thinker who has not benefited from an illuminating encounter with Rene in the past can learn a lot from this work, and it is mercifully short for the sake of its shortcomings relative to a lot of the rest of my habitual reading. ( )

It rly makes u think...