| Soul: Some Nature which Really is more Perfect than | | | | perfect can be attributed to God. There can be no |
| Myself | | | | imperfection in Him. Doubt, inconstancy, sadness, anger, |
| The French philosopher René Descartes' search | | | | hatred - these are not the attributes of God, since they |
| for an oasis of faith through the desert of doubt began | | | | are qualities whose absence would make us happier. |
| with Cogito, ergo sum. I think therefore I am. "My very | | | | That is, they are imperfect qualities, the badge of |
| doubt proves my existence". Otherwise who will be | | | | humanity and not of divinity. God is perfect, which |
| the doubter? Doubt, in itself cannot exist. | | | | means infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, |
| And so skepticism leads to one certainty. I am. | | | | omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, divine. |
| In other words, I am a thinking thing, or a Mind. I may | | | | This fact of existence of a perfect God, asserts |
| doubt that I am a body or that there is a material world | | | | Descartes, "equals and even surpasses in certitude the |
| in which I live. But I cannot doubt away my doubt or | | | | demonstrated fact of geometry." God is the perfection |
| the existence of thought. "Hence I know that I am a | | | | that leads our imperfect footsteps instinctively towards |
| substance whose entire nature it is to think and for | | | | the light. This, then, is Descartes' triune picture of |
| whose existence there is no need of any place, nor | | | | humanity - a mechanical body, a living soul within and |
| does it depend on any material thing; so that this "me", | | | | the spirit of God above, guiding and sustaining us all. |
| that is to say, the soul by which I am that I am, is | | | | Descartes suffered from weak lungs. Queen Christina |
| entirely distinct from my body and is even more easy | | | | of Sweden wanted him to be her teacher in |
| to know than is the latter; and even if the body were | | | | philosophy. Despite his reluctance, she succeeded in |
| not, the soul would not cease to be what it is." | | | | coaxing him to come to Stockholm. Descartes had not |
| And thus, by the simple process of questioning | | | | only the severity of the Swedish climate to contend |
| everything, including the existence of the body, | | | | with but also the stubbornness of Christina's will who, |
| Descartes succeeds (at least to his own satisfaction) | | | | believing her mind to be most receptive to philosophy in |
| in establishing one thing- the existence of the soul. | | | | the early hours of the morning, insisted upon his arrival |
| He next proceeds to establish the existence of God. | | | | at the palace everyday before sunup. He was able to |
| "Whatever I conceive very clearly and distinctly," | | | | stand this sort of wintry climate only for a few weeks |
| asserts Descartes, "is true". Bearing this in mind and | | | | and contracted pneumonia. |
| reflecting on the fact that I am assailed with doubt, I | | | | Feb 11, 1650, Descartes opened his eyes, "What time is |
| realize that my existence is not quite perfect. "For I | | | | it?" he asked in a voice scarcely audible. |
| see clearly that it is a greater perfection to know than | | | | "Four o'clock in the morning." |
| to doubt". But whence have I learnt to think of anything | | | | He makes an effort to rise. "Time to get up. The |
| more perfect than myself? Obviously from some | | | | queen is waiting". And then in a whisper, as he falls |
| nature which really is more perfect than myself - a | | | | back, "Time for the soul to get up." |
| nature which has within itself all the perfection of which | | | | "I am a living soul", he had said, "in quest of Truth". And |
| I can form an idea - in a word, God. Only that which is | | | | now he was rising to meet Truth face to face. |