The Cartesian Slavery

Many history books claim abolition of slavery as the leading cause for the American Civil War.  Since that time, the world has seen an apparent war on organized slavery, which is seen universally as intrinsically evil in any nation and for any reason; or is it?  Though physical slavery is largely non-existent in a strictly formal sense, we live in a truly servile world: discursive thought and physical toil are enslaved in a utilitarian mindset, lacking the liberating recognition of a transcendental and leisurely purpose.  Knowledge “for its own sake”, excursions into absolute truth as existing in the mind of God are gone: discovery of truth existing outside the realm of man and not contingent on him is forsaken.  The new philosophy of the world is, indeed discursive: it is an excursion for man to find (in a sense to conquer) truth.  Discovery has given way to “creation”, transcendent realities become proximate, and everyday contingencies.  Man, in his independent search for “the truth”, an entity of itself which must be conquered rather than encountered, feels the desperate need for security in himself and in what little knowledge he can gain, if any.  He needs geometric concreteness, scientific knowledge of everything, including his relationships; his mind needs to be allowed occasionally to wander and be free among fantasies, for it grows tired of being weighed down by the truth.  What happened to the liberation provided by thought, to the notion that “the truth will set you free”?!  In this paper, I purpose to explore these diametrically opposed visions of the ancient philosophical pursuit of truth and the understanding of truth held by modernity.  With this in mind, I visit two fathers in their prospective schools of thought: Augustine and Descartes who, while holding very similar foundational ideas (knowledge within the self) and arriving at the very same idea (cogito ergo sum), somehow demonstrate almost stereotypically the two opposing schools of thought.  

Man’s desire and search for knowledge of the truth is self-evident and universal.  For Augustine, this desire for Truth shows itself truly as a desire for God, who is all Truth and in whom we live and derive everything about us.  Central to Augustinian philosophical thought is his question “Yet how can we love what we do not know [namely, God]?”  Knowledge of God (and therefore of Truth) must therefore somehow be innate to man.  This innate knowledge, far from being an excursion or existing within man is merely a form of memory, of re-cognizing things which already exist within the mind of God: “The mind’s task is not to seek for the beholding of an absent self, but to be sure that the self which is present is clearly discerned: not to know itself as previously unknown, but to distinguish itself from what it knows to be another matter.”  Almost as a side note, Augustine observes that even if one were to doubt the existence of his own mind (that is, the mind which enables man to know God, the true purpose and desire of man), he would immediately see that “if he doubts what has made him doubt, he remembers; if he doubts, he understands that he is doubting; if he doubts, he wishes to be certain; if he doubts, he thinks… A man may doubt anything else, but he should not doubt any of these facts; for if they were not so, he could doubt of nothing.”  From this it is clear that Augustinian thinking is an experience of personal encounter and appreciation of the truth, an experience which is inseparable from a personal encounter with God.

Descartes (known primarily today for his famous Cartesian plane and NOT his contribution to Western thought) presents his philosophical process to his readers in a much different light.  Any desire or encountering discovery of truth is left unmentioned; Descartes rather believes knowledge to be merely a matter of formulaic approach which can be attained by all, for “Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for everyone thinks himself to be so well endowed with it that even those who are the most difficult to please in everything else are not wont to desire more of it than they have”  Where for Augustine encounter with God and pursuit of His Love was the base and foundation of knowledge, Descartes praises Geometry and mathematics as examples of true and sure knowledge.  From the assumption of “provable” knowledge Descartes derives a proper method whereby all men can attain certain and concrete knowledge of reality.  Descartes too observes that “Thus, after everything has been most carefully weighed, it must finally be established that this pronouncement ‘I am, I exist’ is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind”; but where Augustine almost casually mentions the fact that the mere act of doubting pre-supposes thought, Descartes uses this idea as a foundation for his new philosophy.  This philosophy tries to use this idea as a starting point to gain similar, essentially scientific and certain knowledge of the whole world, including the existence of God.  Cartesian thought assumes the ability of all men to attain certain knowledge of all realities from a proper application of discursive thought, with a proof of self-existence as a foundation.  

The results of these two diametrically opposing views of pursuit of knowledge are seen in both Augustine and Descartes’ reaction to their own discourses prospectively.  Augustine exhorts his reader to join him in leaving “the flesh beneath our feet and rise to the soul, where we may drink of a purer and more limpid spring.”  Truth for Augustine is nothing less than pursuit of a personal encounter with God Himself, which can be attained at long last by a rejection of the carnal bogs in life, until finally that “instant, that flash of vision that touches you with the word ‘Truth’, hold fast – if you can.  But you cannot: you fall back into this familiar world of earthly things."  Where for Augustine the pursuit and contemplation of truth is ultimately a joyful and freeing experience, Descartes finds himself weighed down and confined by his method and perception of knowledge.  He informs his readers that he finds his meditations have, far from elevating his mind, given him the sensation “as if I had suddenly fallen into a deep whirlpool; I am so tossed about that I can neither touch bottom with my foot, nor swim up to the top.”  After long periods, Descartes observes that his mind “loves to wander and does not yet permit itself to be restricted within the confines of truth [emphasis added],” and so he will “just this once allow it completely free rein, so that, a little while later, when the time has come to pull in the reins, the mind may more readily permit itself to be controlled.”  

Augustine is not concerned with proving knowledge, nor are his discourses a formula or method for truth: Augustine is on a journey, a search where “a further ascent still remains for us, a higher realm in which our search is to be pursued…here we may pause – not supposing we have found what we seek [emphasis added], but having found (as seekers do) the place in which to look.”  This journey is a discovery in awe and wonder of God, hidden within ourselves.  The wanderer who embarks on this journey is filled with transcendent joy at the encounter.  This is the end of Ancient philosophy: the embarkation of a journey.  Modernity on the other hand, is a campaign set on conquering knowledge through concrete proofs which constrict the mind to scientific formulas and geometric proofs.  There is no encounter with the truth for modernity: truth is a goal which must be nailed down and moved on from, while at the same time encasing the would-be conqueror in a prison like “a deep whirlpool.”  

Slavery is alive and well in the world, claiming innocent wanderers of all walks of life to its iron grip.  The headmaster of these slaves does not impose his will on them; the slave owner is no foreign lord.  This is a self-inflicted slavery, with a false understanding of knowledge as the chains.  The joy and transcendent freedom offered by Augustine is no more, for it rests in a humble beholding of the truth which stands apart, yet dwells within the heart of man.