Descartes

Descartes Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophy. His principle goal was to be completely in control of his life. This meant that he had to become independent in all aspects of life including, economically, intellectually and socially. His desire to gain self independence is the driving theme of his work, Discourse on Method. He starts off his first two parts dealing with his stride toward intellectual independence and how that pertains to his mind and education. Descartes was skeptical when it came to his education. He understood the value of being “book smart”, yet also knew that there was more to intelligence than that. Experience was a key factor in Descartes self sufficiency. He feels that he “mastered” (page 3) all he set out to teach himself but still was unsure of his results due to his increased and newly discovered ignorance. This is the beginning of Descartes’ desire for independence. He follows this discovery with the decision to decide what is important and worth retaining and what is not. Descartes emphasizes the importance of self-shaping, saying that when students take in all their teachers tell them, descartes, mind, one, page, themselves, life, guidelines, work, two, own, order, independence, important, become, since, method, independent, himself, follow, everyone, education, discourse, desire, thus, think, teach, take, students, states, self-shaping, self, says, readers, principle, people