Mathesis Universalis and the Cartesian Unification of Philosophy, Science, and Religion

Abstract

In this paper we present the manner in which René Descartes discovered the principle of the autonomy of the spirit as a Mathesis Universalis, as a universal science, his perception being much different from the medieval scholastic one, where the intellect corresponded with the sensible reality. Descartes reversed this suitability, considering that the intellect should not be guided by things and build judgments according to them, but, on the contrary, things are analyzed according to the intellect's abilities to give them meanings and sense, to make them intelligible.

Firstly, we will demonstrate that, for Descartes, the very existence, the reality of a thing depends on this light of the intellect that unifies all knowledge through Mathesis Universalis. For the French philosopher, order and measure, captured by Mathesis Universalis, become the qualities by which God, the only perfect Being, created the Universe that obeys a coherent mathematical model.

Secondly, we will highlight the fact that the starting point of this new metaphysics could be found in Descartes’s view that God cannot be considered deceptive, that the world is not the creation of an evil and cunning Genius.

In conclusion, knowledge through Mathesis Universalis leads the spirit to that place where the reasons of universal peace can be founded, whose purpose is to overcome those structures of the imaginary that wing the irrational drives dressed in the clothes of war and death.