Have you ever had a dream so emotionally powerful that it changed your perspective on life? I bet we can all point to a dream that stuck with us for days on end, sticking with us to the present day. The French philosopher and early mathematician René Descartes had such a dream or rather a series of dreams which brought his unconsciousness to the forefront. In the time of Descartes, dreams were considered to have powerful and oftentimes spiritual meaning. Dreams were to be studied and meditated on for they were often believed to hold great importance and enlightenment. Descartes was no exception to this phenomenon and on the night of November tenth, he found himself being visited by three separate dreams. Descartes’s dreams would hold significate importance and change not Descartes, but the world. It’s strange that Descartes’s lasting treasure of philosophical rationalism which later became the model for modern science came not from rational thought, but from mystical dreams sent from the heavens.
René Descartes was born on March 31st of 1596 growing up in the town of La Hay en Touraine, France. Descartes had no easy life by any means, after turning the age of one young Descartes had already lost his mother. Descartes's strife did not stop there he grew up a fairly sickly child and was deprived of his childhood due to these illnesses. Maybe due to the lack of a strong woman figure, Descartes never married, rather he fathered a bastard child with a woman named Helena Strom. The story of his only child met an untimely ending at the age of five and left Descartes depressed and alone. By some divine guidance, René Descartes pushed through all his struggles and strife to become one of the most influential philosophers and mathematicians the world has ever seen. The “divine guidance” that Descartes found shaped his life profoundly and caused a ripple effect that can easily be traced through his work.
The year was 1619 in the middle of November the night was black and cold, the streets only lit by candlelight, on this night Descartes found himself stationed in Bavaria Germany. Descartes’s early life was mostly spent traveling with the Dutch army as a military engineer and on the night of his three dreams, he again found himself in the service of the Dutch military. Escaping the bitterly cold night Descartes was said to have sheltered himself away in a room with some sources even saying Descartes slept in an oven that resided in the room (knappily). Although not proven few sources have stated that prior to Descartes’s dream he felt that a spiritual message was soon to befall upon him giving this story an even greater mystery (ESOTERICA). Shortly after falling fast, asleep Descartes would embark on a mystical journey into his subconscious uncovering questions which stuck with him for the rest of his life.
The stage was set and Descartes's first dream began to unfold “I am walking in an unknown street when suddenly ghosts appear in front of me.” (dreamofthedrawing). Descartes terrified by the apparitions raced away from the ghouls when suddenly a whirlwind caught Descartes in a spinning motion. Descartes’s difficulty of walking made him ashamed to be seen by public eyes, escaping from their judging eyes Descartes stumbled his way into a nearby college. On his way into the college, Descartes stops to find a familiar face, but before reaching his acquaintance Descartes was again pushed away by the whirlwind. This time the gust of wind brought Descartes to another person, the man gave Descartes a melon from a foreign land. Not knowing what to do with the strange gift Descartes accepted and began to walk away. While on his walk Descartes again notices an irregularity in his posture and felt he was being watched by the apparitions on the street. Descartes soon awoke and felt a great pain in his side thinking that he may have been cursed Descartes found comfort in prayer, and thus concluded Descartes’s first dream.
Again, the stage was set Descartes had fallen fast asleep “after a couple of hours thinking about the good and evil in the world” (Cambridge). Descartes’s second dreams began with a thunderous clap startling the sleeping Descartes into a wakeful state. The origin of the loud noise was nowhere to be found, rather in its place where visions of fiery objects floating around the room. The second dream being the most abrupt ended as quickly as it had begun even still the fear it instilled into Descartes’s heart held great weight. After meditation on the sudden hallucination, Descartes eventually found what he believed to be a rational conclusion. Finding solace in his understanding of the vision Descartes found himself falling fast asleep for the last time that night.
The third and most impactful one of Descartes’s three dreams had begun “in the third dream he finds two books on a table, a dictionary, and a Corpus poetarum” (Keevak). Descartes opens the dictionary briefly and flips through the pages seeming confused by its appearance. Descartes then reaches for the other book Corpus poetarum flipping to a random page when suddenly his eyes laid upon the Latin verse “Quod vitae sectabor iter?” in translating to “Which path in life will I choose?” (dreamofthedrawing). The question seemed to have stunned Descartes, but only momentarily when suddenly the apparition of a man appeared in the corner of the room. With an outreached hand the dark figure hands Descartes a poem that began with the line “Est et non” translating to “What is and is not” (knappily). Descartes paused only for a second before his memory of this poem verse came into mind recalling that it belonged to the Book of Poems. After the realization, Descartes began to flip rapidly through the pages of the book looking for other cherished poems, but all was in vain as the pages in the book had been ripped out. Descartes looked up to question the man of what became of the tattered book, but suddenly the man, as well as the book in his hand, had disappeared.
René Descartes woke the next morning with a troubling dilemma in front of him. In trying to find meaning in his three dreams Descartes meditated on their message. Believing that his dreams were sent from the heavens themselves, Descartes assumed these dreams held great significance. Descartes had a simple explanation for the first dream, he believed an evil spirit had cursed him and it was his faith in prayer that got rid of the affliction. The second dream was again easily renounced as nothing more than a hallucination and figment of Descartes’s imagination. It was Descartes’s third dream that gave him the most pause, even with meditation Descartes struggled to find a clear meaning. Descartes stated that his third dream felt so real that he couldn’t distinguish between reality and what was a hallucination referring back to the question “Est et non” or “What is and is not” (knappily). Descartes’s confusion led him to distrust reality as a whole, wondering whether or not his reality was real or not. It was only by rational reasoning that Descartes was able to return to a normal state again leaving us with the quote “I think therefore I am”.
The speaker ESOTERICA sheds light onto the ideas that may have been running through Descartes unconscious mind and elaborates on their meaning. The video also goes into detail about the three dreams of Descartes and the effects each had on the development of this megalithic figure of philosophy.
"Descartes’s lasting treasure of philosophical rationalism which later became the model for modern science"-well, modern science is more empiricistic than rationalistic in the Cartesian sense. Metaphysical certainty is just not available, and provides no useful standard of knowledge. Fallibility, not certainty, is the touchstone of progressive science.
ReplyDelete"bastard child"-ugly word!
Interesting: Descartes the rationalist turns out to have been given to superstitious and even mystical thinking, after all. His inability to discern the difference between dreams and reality without a feeling of "clear and distinct" certainty is arguably the source of what Antonio Damasio has called "Descartes's Error"... but I'd pluralize that, he committed multiple errors. Still, a pivotal "modern" figure in the history of western philosophy.