Western Civilization I / Unit 17 WC1 1629 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Descartes: Doubt, Deduction, and the Mechanical Universe
Captions available
The idea
Rene Descartes, fifteen ninety-six to sixteen fifty, doubted everything he could and found one certainty, that he thought, therefore he was, and deduced God from it: deductive reasoning applied to belief. The universe ran by mechanical, mathematical laws; God had set it going.
In practice
The Discourse on Method, sixteen thirty-seven, conventional.
Where people slip
A non-meddling God, the anchor says: the road to deism.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it