Article ID: CBB081651914

Descartes on certainty in deduction (2024)

unapi

This article examines how deduction preserves certainty and how much certainty it can preserve according to Descartes's Rules for the Direction of the Mind. I argue that the certainty of a deduction is a matter of four conditions for Descartes. First, certainty depends on whether the conjunction of simple propositions is composed with necessity or contingency. Second, a deduction approaches the certainty of an intuition depending on how many “acts of conceiving” it requires and—third—the complexity or difficulty of the acts of thinking, which is determined by the content of the thoughts and on external factors. Fourth, certainty depends on the intellectual aptitude of the person using the deduction. A deduction lacks certainty when it relies on memory such that it is not apprehended with immediacy. However, the mental capacity and speed of a mind can be increased by training the special mental faculties of perspicacity and discernment. Increasing one's intellectual aptitude allows for more steps of a deduction to be inferred in fewer acts of conceiving, thereby helping preserve the certainty of a deduction.

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Authors & Contributors
Akeroyd, F. Michael
Alexandrescu, Vlad
Arabatzis, Theodore
Ariew, Roger
Boumans, Marcel
Chen-Morris, Raz
Journals
Perspectives on Science
Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences
British Journal for the History of Philosophy
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Foundations of Chemistry
Foundations of Science
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Pennsylvania State University
Pickering & Chatto
Zeta Books
Concepts
Methodology of science; scientific method
Philosophy of science
Theories of knowledge
Deduction
Philosophy
Certainty; uncertainty
People
Descartes, René
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
Newton, Isaac
Ampère, André Marie
Ariew, Roger
Brahe, Tycho
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century, late
21st century
Places
Germany
Scotland
England
Institutions
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
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