Drowning in Words...

My first thought when I finished the assigned Descartes reading was, “I am so glad this guy finally figured out that he is in fact, alive, and he does exist.” But after class today, I am realizing that Descartes going through the long, tedious, seemingly random meditations had a distinct aim, which was “to discover only one thing that is certain and indubitable.” This seemed like something that would be easily done, so I rolled my eyes at Descartes’ ramblings. However, after being encouraged to doubt everything today in class, I somewhat followed his train of thought. When you begin to pry away preconceived notions and attempt to find a rational basis for everything that you simply accepted as truth before, reality becomes a bit hazy because the knowledge in your head is built on a foundation of those notions.

The only way it makes sense in my head is through the analogy in Meditation II. When you upset your world by doubting everything and accepting nothing at face value, it’s like doing somersaults in the deep end of the pool. You are constantly overturning normalcy and going in circles, which leads to disorientation until you no longer know what’s up and what’s down. You want to keep going down and see where you will end up and what makes the foundation, but at the same time you long for a breath of fresh air, a bit of reality to keep you from drowning. But what is reality? What is the truth? What are the facts? These thoughts run in circles in your head. Descartes has said the senses cannot be trusted, and indeed they sometimes deceive us, but if truth is not found in what we touch and see, then where is it? Eventually you pick a direction and start swimming, and if you break the surface you find yourself right back where you started, except you’re more confused because you still do not know on what this “reality” is founded. If you reach the bottom of the pool, you find something concrete on which you can place your feet and stand. This concrete attribute, according to Descartes, is thinking. This cannot be separated from yourself; it is the one and only thing intertwined with who you are. To doubt, to reason, to move, to suspect, to be certain, and to determine truth all require thinking. Descartes said, “If I should wholly cease to think, that I should at the same time altogether cease to be,” and I think he is right. Just for example, consider a nonresponsive person in a coma. They lack the ability to think and function, so although their physical bodies may be alive, they are not “living” as we know it. They are not thinking and experiencing life because the brain is not functioning. Back to the analogy, once this truth is made evident to the drowning, they have a firm surface to push off of and make their way back to the top. This time, as they emerge from the depths they see “reality” in a new light, and also God himself.

We were created as “thinking things,” and also at the core of that “thinking” we have the desire to be connected with something bigger than ourselves. This desire is subconscious but simply serves to point to the One who created us and put the initial “thoughts” in our head. So I think I see the point Descartes is making; we who think do exist although we may doubt everything around us. In the same way, although we may doubt God, He still does exist and makes himself known throughout the ages. Not just in stories and history, but also personally in the one thing you can call your own: your mind.