Assessing the foundations of certainty in the furnace of methodical doubt/challenges of mind-body dualism, issues that can still be explored; I think so I am

Imagine deciding one day to only believe things you can be absolutely certain about. Do not trust your senses; Because sometimes they deceive you. Doubt the difference between sleep and wakefulness and even ask yourself if what you are experiencing now could be part of a dream.

Descartes founded the concept of "thinking subject" and analytical geometry by overcoming the deception of the senses and destroying dogma?

## Deciphering the challenges of dualism of mind and body; From the formulation of "I think, therefore I am" to the crossroads of the Cartesian cycle and the attempt to rationally explain the mechanical world.

According to Ambassador Arjan Elaha Khosravi, in a report he prepared with artificial intelligence, he writes: This is the point where Rene Descartes enters the story of philosophy. René Descartes was one of the most important philosophers and mathematicians of the beginning of the modern era; A thinker who tried to find a point to know the human being that would last even against the most severe doubts.

His method was later known as methodical skepticism and the famous phrase "I think, therefore I am" became the symbol of his philosophy. However, Descartes' thought is not limited to this phrase. He also had effective theories about mind and body, God, truth, science and the right way of thinking.

Rene Descartes was born in France in 1596 and died in 1650. He lived in a period when Europe was witnessing great scientific and intellectual developments and many old beliefs about nature, man and knowledge were being revised. Descartes was not just a philosopher. He was considered a creative mathematician, an important thinker in natural philosophy, and one of the influential figures in metaphysics.

One of his important legacies in mathematics was the link between algebra and geometry; An approach that later played an important role in the formation of analytical geometry. Among the important works of Descartes, we can mention these books:

The book "Reflections on Early Philosophy" published in 1641 is one of his most important works for explaining the foundations of knowledge and metaphysics.

Descartes' doubt; Why should we doubt what we know?

Descartes did not want skepticism for the sake of constant doubt. His goal was not to destroy all beliefs; Rather, he wanted to temporarily put aside the beliefs about which there may be doubts, to reach a point of complete certainty and start building knowledge from there. In the first reflection, he first goes to the senses. Our senses sometimes deceive us; So can they always be a completely reliable basis for knowledge?

Then the question of sleep arises: how do we know that we are awake right now and not dreaming? At a more extreme level, Descartes even considers a scenario in which a very powerful illusion can make a person mistaken about things that seem obvious. In the history of philosophy, this scenario is known as "deceptive devil" or "evil genius".

Descartes did not want to make a scientific claim about the world with this assumption. He used it as a tool to challenge beliefs to see if there was something that could not be denied even in such circumstances.

Therefore, Cartesian skepticism is different from permanent skepticism. Descartes uses doubt as a tool to reach certainty.

What exactly does "I think, therefore I am" mean?

We have probably heard the most famous phrase of Descartes many times: "I think, therefore I am" or in Latin: Cogito ergo sum.

After Descartes questions everything, he realizes that he cannot deny and do one thing at the same time: if he is doubting, at least he is thinking; And if thinking is happening, it cannot deny its absolute existence at that moment.

In "Second Reflection", the formulation of Descartes' argument is closer to this meaning: "I am, I exist; "Whenever I think about it, it's certain for me." The famous phrase "I think, therefore I am" is a summary of this argument. The important thing is that this sentence does not appear exactly like this in the text of "Reflections".

At this point, Descartes still does not know exactly what "I" is. First, he is only sure of his existence as a thinking being, and then he raises the question of what is the nature of this being.

Did Descartes really say that there is no body?

One of the simplistic views about Descartes is that he considered the mind to be real and the body to be unreal. This impression is not accurate. In the stage of methodical doubt, Descartes temporarily doubts the existence of the body from an epistemological point of view. That is, it asks whether I can prove the existence of the body and the external world with the same degree of certainty as I find the existence of my own thoughts.

From here, the famous problem of mind-body relationship is formed. Descartes associated the mind with the concept of thinking and the material body with the concept of extension in space. This distinction later became known as mind-body dualism or Cartesian dualism.

Of course, the exact relationship between the mind and the body in Descartes' philosophy is a complex issue, and many discussions have been held about it since his time until today. The historical importance of Descartes' view is not only summarized in a simple dichotomy between "mind" and "body"; The problem he raised became one of the main roots of what is now called the mind-body problem.

For a better understanding of Descartes' philosophy, one should also pay attention to the concept of method. He believed that in order to solve complex problems, one should not proceed disorderly. In the book "Speech in Method", Descartes proposes a set of principles to guide reason. Among these principles, the following can be mentioned:

Do not consider anything as truth before having sufficient reason;

divide difficult problems into smaller parts;

to move from simpler matters regularly to more complex matters;

Carry out complete and comprehensive investigations.

This method can be easily imagined in everyday life. When we face a complex problem, instead of judging the whole problem at once, it is better to separate its parts, know our assumptions and check which part is really proven and which part just seems right to us.

Of course, Descartes' philosophical method should not be equated with today's instructions for solving all problems; But his emphasis on order, clarity and examination of presuppositions is one of the reasons for his enduring methodological legacy.

Descartes and the problem of truth; Can reason not make mistakes?

After reaching "Cogito", Descartes faces a new question: if knowledge is to be built on the basis of clear and distinct beliefs, how do we know that these clear and distinct perceptions are reliable?

In Descartes' philosophical project, proving the existence of God and discussing God's perfection and infallibility are also on the same path. He tries to show that there is a perfect and non-deceptive God, and in this way provides a basis for trusting some clear and distinct knowledge.

But this part of Descartes's philosophy has faced one of the most famous interpretative debates about him, that is, "Cartesian round". Critics and commentators have debated whether Descartes's argument for trusting clear and distinct perceptions is far-fetched. To put it simply, the question is, doesn't Descartes use reason itself to prove the validity of reason and then prove the validity of his arguments again with the help of the same validity?

This point shows that Descartes' philosophy should not be reduced to a few famous sentences. His works are a collection of complex arguments that have been analyzed, criticized and reconstructed by philosophers after him for centuries.

What did Descartes have to do with the new science?

Descartes is sometimes presented only as a skeptical philosopher, while he also contributed to the evolution of the scientific picture of nature. Descartes tried to explain natural phenomena with mechanical explanations and comprehensible laws. He was looking for an orderly, rational and lawful image of the material world.

Many of Descartes' scientific theories were later discarded, but his attempt to explain nature in terms of structure, size, motion, and law was part of the intellectual atmosphere that helped shape modern science. For this reason, Descartes' position is not limited only to the history of philosophy. He is at the point where mathematics, science, epistemology and metaphysics converge.

Today, no one uses Descartes' method to solve a scientific problem anymore, and many of his natural theories have gained historical value. However, one of the questions of his philosophy is still alive:

"How can I be sure that what I believe is really true?" Descartes forces us to distinguish between "seeming to be true" and "having a reason". This difference is still very important in the age of information overload, fake news and baseless claims.

Descartes' main legacy can be summed up in one thought movement: to doubt in order to reach certainty. He wanted to destroy everything temporarily to see if it could be rebuilt from scratch. The first result of this search was the famous proposition: "I think, therefore I am."

But the real importance of Descartes' project is not only in this sentence; Rather, it is on the path he reached. Descartes reminds us that before we believe something to be true, we should ask ourselves: Why should I believe it?