Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

René Descartes:Totality and Infinity

Publication |
2006

Abstract

René Descartes in his Regulae ad directionem ingenii introduces the new concept of correct cognition as a certainty. This concept of certain cognition may be characterized (in connection with Emmanuel Lévinas) as a concept of rational totalization. it is legitimized by descartes in his Discourse on Method where he presents the human being as a primary rational being and postulates the existence of a perfect God as a perfect provider of compliance of outcomes of rational totalization and the recognized, primarily material being. in his Meditation on First Philosophy, he attempts to eliminate significant shortcomings in the construction as given in his Discourse on Method, while remaining faithful to the totalization project. however, at the same time, in his discussion on God he stresses Gods infinity, and in this sense God is presented here as something that remains outside of human reach as a totalizing being.