Cartesian Tabula Rasa: A (Brief) Discourse on Method
René Descartes was an interesting cat. A genius, no doubt, but also someone with a philosophy that most great minds today will tell you couldn’t be more wrong. While his dualism of mind and matter is a false dichotomy, the approach he took in getting there amazes me.
To find truth, Descartes rejected everything. He went totally “tabula rasa,” which is crazy if you think about it. Like, if you were to literally do what he describes, it’s a form of madness. But at any rate, it’s thorough, and the four rules he came up with are quite good, even if they took him to [an intermediary] conclusion.
His methodology was thus:
- Accept as true only what is indubitable.
- Divide every question into manageable parts.
- Begin with the simplest issues and ascend to the more complex.
- Review frequently enough to retain the whole argument at once.
The first rule is kind of strict, but I get it: we need to be sure what we think, what we believe, what we feel is true, to actually be true. Don’t just accept the world is flat, or the sun revolves around the earth, or that vanilla is better than chocolate. Find out truth for yourself. Make truth tangible, and then proceed from there.
The next three rules I find to be quite elegant and applicable to a wide range of tasks. Pretty much any project, this methodology works.
- “Divide every question in manageable parts.” That’s good, break stuff down to build stuff up.
- “Begin with the simplest issues and ascend to the more complex.” Slow and steady wins the race.
- “Review frequently enough to retain the whole argument at once.” Dive deep into the work, focus intensely, but zoom out every now and again to see the bigger picture; that’s where beauty and epiphany lie, where patterns are seen, where connections are made, and how depth and breadth create something unique, possibly extraordinary.
I think these rules are great for one’s writing process. I might change the first rule to something like: Assume the reader has no idea what you’re talking about or what you’re trying to say. And the rest is good.
As stark my spiritual discord with Descartes, I have a deep appreciation for a man who savored truth more than anything, and devoted his life to such worthy pursuits.
