Rene Descartes: Rationalism, a New Mythos

There are two primary sources of knowledge which human got naturally, those are reason and experience. All of knowledge include philosophy always circulate in both of them. Some people prefer to emphasize experience, and the others prefer to reason as their foundation. Who choose the first teaching called by empiricism, and the second is called by rationalism.
Rene Descartes, besides he was called by the founder of modern philosophy he also called by the founder of continental rationalism. His famous concept cogito ego sum became first crossbar for new period of philosophy, that’s modernity. Through his concept he want to affirm that only reason something could be the basic of philosophy, the only one believable principle, not faith and revelation in the same manner as what people hold in middle century. The appearance of Galileo, who find truth through science, is the victory for reason over revelation. Then, since the time, reason is always applied in human problems as modernity foundation.
In this case, human existence is determined by “I” element. Being or nothing of human are influenced and established by I existence as thinking subject. Cogito (I think) is not found through deduction of general principles or intuition. Cogito is found by our own minds, something known through self, not through scripture, legend, people opinion, prejudice, etc. it’s indicate that rationalism exalt subjectivism and individualism. Subject became very central in life until it be consciousness basic of someone existence.
Specifically, Rene Descartes set forth that in order to reach absolute assurance and universal guarantee truth, philosophy included epistemology must use mathematic method as its idealism. Because, according to Descartes the only discipline subject which produce certain and proved cogitation is mathematic. It means if philosophy want to find the certain result or thought, philosophy should make mathematic way as its idealism.
Furthermore, the rationalistic-positivistic paradigm will take some effects in modern life. Some of them are the emergence of subject-object dualism. By centre upon rationalism, the modernity life will consider human as life subject and universe as life object. By this dualism, human became in only his own world, not in surge, but in gap. The relation of modernity human with his universe is definite only as separated observer, not as a part of his cosmos who grappled intimately in it. Human is posited as active subject who free to observe, research, exploit and take over it. While cosmos around is only passive object that freely could be observed, researched and exploited as if it has no relation with the observer itself. That’s the cause of modern human alienation with his own world.
Because of that, rationalism at the first emergence was functioned to accuse mythos, now it became new mythos precisely. The mythologization is happened because of the rational paradigmatic system that his followers make it the one truth and deny truths from other views. Rationalism became a singularity and negated plurality. In its methodological context, modern science basically only know one scientific method that called by observation and experiment. It means there are a lot of possibilities which have truth values also over rationalism. Tweet Follow @tirtanirwana