On The Factors Of Empiricism In Descartes' Philosophy

Descartes is the founder of the modern western rationalism in European continent. Being one of the pioneers of the rationalism, he advocated the freedom of speculation, and hold the flag of rationalism up high. Through the method of suspicion, he founded the first principle of his philosophy "I think, therefore I am", and built up his own philosophy system. Although Descartes was recognized as the founder and main representative of the rationalism in European continent, however, when we admit that there is a distinct recognition of its rationalism, we also must admit that his philosophy contains a certain amount of factors of empiricism.On the issue of the origin and means of cognition, Descartes believes that some concepts (such as the idea of God) are given by God, which makes his philosophy distinctive with empiricism, and reflects his theoretical positions. However, he did not think that all concepts are given by God, but admitted that some concepts are from the feelings and imagination. This suggests that on the issue of the origin of cognition, he did not completely exclude the idea of empiricism. Of course, he thinks the concept given by God is more reliable than that from the feeling and imagination, that is to say the innate ideas have a higher certainty. This naturally reflects the rationalism tendency of his thought. "I think, therefore I am" is the first principle of the Cartesian philosophy."I think",---the theory of self-consciousness,---occupies a very important position in his philosophy. It is generally believed that what Descartes says "I think", is an abstract concept of thinking. The reason why people think so is possibly that people first understand what he said,"I think", from the perspective of rationalism. However, according to what Descartes has discussed, it is easy to be seen that what he said "I think", inherently includes feeling and imagination, rather than being a purely abstract concept of thinking. Of course, to Descartes, the feeling and imagination which are included in the "I think", as an inherent way of thinking, are different from the feeling and imagination for the material world, the latter depend on the existence of objects, while the former is entirely within the thinking. Although the feeling and imagination in Descartes'"I think" is just a way of thinking, and an inner consciousness which is cut off with foreign objects. But regardiing this inherent sense of feeling and imagination as an organic part of "I think", shows, after all, that what Descartes said "I think", as the inner consciousness which people understand by themselves with the inner intuition, acturally can not simply be attributed to a purely logical, conceptual thinking, but a holistic inner awareness which contains the inner feelings and imagination. This also shows that:his "I think" theory also contains empiricism factors. When establishing the theory of"I think, therefore I am" Descartes raised a general suspection on the reliability of feeling and imagination. Therefore, he suspected aboou't the existence of external things which are witnessed by the feeling and imagination. But after he had established the principle of "I think, therefore I am", he proved the existence of the God who is absolutely perfect and never lie. As a result, he eventually told us that we should believe all that we sense, that is, to try to prove the objective existence of material substance through the feeling and imagination. Thus, Descartes, with Feuerbach, Marx and other materialist philosophers, have tried to demonstrate the objective reality of physical entity basing on the feeling and imagination, which fully reflects the basis of feeling of his physical entity theory.The study on the factors of empiricism in Cartesian philosophy, can help us grasp the Cartesian philosophy more fully, and also help us to better understand the complex relationship betwee modern rationalism in European continent and British empiricism, mutually different and opposite, while interrelating and penetrating. Of course, how to grasp the relationship between the dominant aspect of rationalism and the factors empiricism in the Cartesian philosophy more accurately, is a subject yet to be further explored.