IDEA – Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych

Descartes once emphatically stated: “I have a habit to study no other thing more than the observed simplest truths that are innate in our minds, which when they are pointed to anyone, he does not think he was ever ignorant of them ” (7.464).1 It can be disputed whether it really was always his goal to find truths in innate ideas, but certainly his goal was to find scientific and philosophi-cal truth and he found it eventually in himself, in innate ideas, but not of himself, since these ideas were not truly his, because they were given to him. At first, Descartes tried to find the truth through intensive study of ancient authors (6.6). He found it unsatisfactory since, for instance, the ancient authors spoke about virtues, but they did not teach how to recognize them. Also, he encountered so many different views concerning the same subjects, and yet he was convinced that there must be only one truth. Therefore, even if something appeared to be only likely, and thus uncertain, Descartes considered it to be “almost false ” (6.8). This stemmed from the conviction that in order to establish something certain and lasting, everything has to be abolished and certainty has to be built from the ground up (7.18). If he found any reason to doubt some conviction, he rejected it (18, 21). He abandoned reading books and wanted t