Posts
 |
| A photoshop creation meaging a raven from Pt Reyes, CA with sand dunes at sunset on Cape Cod CC Jean Stimmell |
We all grew up lauding Rene Descartes, the
acknowledged father of modern philosophy, whose famous dictum, "I
think therefore I am," has become the rallying cry and iconic mantra
of Western Civilization since the Enlightenment.
We have somehow been oblivious to the fact that his
privileging of mind over body has spawned a horrifying lack of empathy by those
in power who have been able to position themselves as "the head of
society" while the rest of us subsist as the body.
This lack of empathy for us human hoi
polloi extends to animals who, in
Descartes dismissive view, “eat without
pleasure, cry without pain, grow without knowing it; they desire nothing, fear
nothing, know nothing.”
Descartes lack of empathy or
understanding of the emotional ties of compassion and love that connect us all
is utterly amazing. Certainly, it is the root flaw in his philosophy and, by
extension, perhaps the root flaw in Western civilization itself.
After all how can an animal, a
human, or a social organism exist as a head without a heart?
[1] This quote on Descartes view on animals is taken from a superb
article by John J. Sullivan in http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/one-of-us.php?page=all
1 comment:
Descartes was concerned with the question: "what can be known with absolute certainty?" not with the relative value of creatures with differing degrees of sentience. To interpret his dictum as saying that rational thought is most important or most valuable is to misconstrue his argument.
Descartes wondered if there was anything that could be known with absolute certainty and imagined a hypothetical world in which an omnipotent deceiver tried to interfere with his ability to know accurate information about the world. In this world Descartes would have to doubt everything, but in order to doubt he has to be able to think, but in order to be able to think he has to exist. And because the fact that he is thinking necessarily entails that he exists, the fact of one's own existence cannot be doubted / is absolutely certain.
Post a Comment