Descartes

Talking about Rene Descartes (1596-1650), it must be his methodological doubt. This is from his Discourse on Method (1637), thus:

“…. but since I wanted to devote myself solely to the search for truth, I thought that I should act in the opposite manner, and reject as absolutely false anything about which I could imagine the slightest doubt, so that I could see if there would not remain after all that something in my belief which could be called absolutely certain.

So, because our senses sometimes trick us, I tried to imagine that there was nothing which is the way that we imagine it; and since there are people who are mistaken about the simplest matters of geometry, making mistakes in logic, and supposing that I was as likely to make mistakes as anyone else, I rejected as false all the reasonings that I had considered as valid demonstrations.”

Sebagai perbandingan saya ambil pula apa yang ditulis oleh Imam al-Ghazali (1058-1111m) dalam kitabnya al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error) yang ditulis lebih kurang 600 tahun sebelum Descartes. Seperti Descartes, it was a methodological doubt too.

“I said to myself, I am seeking knowledge of what things really are, so I must know what knowledge is. I saw that certain knowledge must exclude all doubt and the possibility of error, indeed even the supposition of this…

When I examined my knowledge, I found that none of it was certain except matters of sense-perception and necessary truths. It further occurred to me, however, that my present trust in sense-perception and necessary truths was perhaps no better founded than my previous trust in propositions accepted from parents and teachers. So I earnestly set about making myself doubt sense perception and necessary truths…”

Walaupun begitu kesimpulan al-Ghazali tentang keupayaan kita mengetahui ilmu yang pasti dan hakiki adalah lebih radikal berbanding Descartes. Kedua-duanya bersependapat bahawa ilmu melalui `sense-perception’ (ain al-yaqin, panca indera) adalah tidak reliable.

Tetapi al-Ghazali juga berpendapat bahawa ilmu melalui proses kognitif (ilm al-yaqin, akal murni, pure reason) pun tidak reliable juga, sedangkan Descartes membina seluruh epistemologinya atas landas keabsahan `knowledge by pure reason’ ini.

Al-Ghazali akhirnya komited dengan pendekatan ilmu haq al-yaqin, ilmu yang diperoleh melalui intuisi, melalui pengalaman mistik dan esoteric yang sangat peribadi sifatnya. Ilmu jenis inilah yang dikatakan oleh al-Ghazali sebagai yang reliable, yang pasti dan infinite.

Tentunya tidak semua bersetuju dengan al-Ghazali. Muhammad Iqbal sebagai contoh mengkritik kategorisasi ilmu oleh al-Ghazali ini. Kata Iqbal dalam The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam:

“He (al-Ghazali) failed to see that thought and intuition are organically related and that thought must necessarily simulate finitude and inconclusiveness because of its alliance with serial time. The idea that thought is essentially finite, and for this reason unable to capture the Infinite, is based on a mistaken notion of the movement of thought in knowledge…”

-------------------------------

Cogito ergo sum.

`I think, therefore I am’ adalah suatu essence/substance manusia. Fitrah?

Methodologi Descartes itu adalah suatu sistem berfikit dengan cara meragukan segala sesuatu yang diketahuinya atau dipercayainya, iaitu suatu `extreme scepticism’.

Mula-mula dia runtuhkan atau dismantle semua pengetahuan sedia adanya, seperti katanya: “… everything that ever entered into my mind was no more true than the illusions of my dream.”

Tetapi betulkah begitu? Ya, pasti katanya. Seperti yang dijelaskan olehnya dia mampu secara mental memadamkan tubuhnya sendiri, dunia ini dan segala yang ada di sekelilingnya. Walaupun begitu ada satu yang dia tidak boleh ragukan atau hapuskan, walau sekuat mana dia mencubanya, iaitu kewujudannya sendiri. Perbuatan meragukan itu sendiri memerlukannya berfikir, dan berfikir itu perlukan suatu kewujudan. Kebenaran dengan itu adalah `self-evident’, lalu: `Cogito ergo sum' atau `I think, therefore I am’.

Kebenaran tidak boleh dinafikan dan tidak boleh terelakkan. Mahu menafikannya memerlukan dia berfikir, berfikir pula bermakna dia wujud.

Daripada prinsip cogito inilah Descartes menyimpulkan bahawa dirinya adalah suatu hakikat, yang berfikir dan kewujudannya adalah bebas daripada jasadnya. Suatu roh. Seperti katanya “… this, me…, the soul by which I am what I am, is entirely distinct from body… and even if body were not, the soul would not cease to be what it is…”.

Roh menurut Descartes bukan berasal dari kuasa materi. Ia diciptakan lalu dimasukkan ke dalam tubuh, dan tubuh hanyalah suatu mesin. Tiada apa yang boleh memusnahkan roh, ia kekal atau immortal.