René Descartes: Three Conditions of a Good Life
“I think, therefore I am.” - René Descartes
In a modern whirlpool of never-ending turmoil– corporate hustle culture, academic burnout, and the expectation to be constantly productive– a good life seems outlandish and implausible. The 1% residing at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy seem to dictate what a good life ought to look like: a doctorate degree & pools of wealth and ultimately, having an unobtainable life. However, to truly dissect the fibers of a good life, one must rewind time and return to the root of our capitalist society– the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, the Scientific Revolution. Specifically, what did René Descartes, the renowned French philosopher and creator of analytic geometry, have to note on a good life? From one of the most avid embracers of maximizing knowledge and one of many influential thinkers of history, surprisingly, much remains to be analyzed of Descartes’ lens on a good life.
Conqueror of Knowledge
Descartes, as did many other thinkers of the Enlightenment Period, possessed a tunnel vision on the accessing of knowledge; a man of medicine, mechanics, and morals, he often intertwined each with the other in chase of understanding to another plane. Philosophy, to him, was the realization of a happy life; “the pleasure to be gained from contemplating the truth, which is practically the only happiness in this life that is complete and untroubled by pain (Rutherford)”. Such was his definition of philosophy: philosophy, the study of wisdom, came in two parts– firstly, maintaining prudence and rationale in daily affairs, but secondly, possessing perfect knowledge of all knowledge within human capacity. Thus, escaping the boundaries of our commonly held perception of wisdom as imparting knowledge in constructive, beneficial ways, Descartes aimed for a second layer– this was to discover, operate, master every crevice of unconquered area in human knowledge and thought; the maximization of available resources was crucial to his values.
Upon first glance, this seems a high bar. It appears, almost as if, Descartes expected perfection of everybody; and conversely, those unable to achieve that, incompetent and predisposed to a “bad life”. It seems, to Descartes, that having knowledge gaps would be the sole definer of a stark contrast between finding purpose and meaning in life, and not. However, notably, this is where Descartes flips this so rather, it acts as a combatant to unhappiness and mind’s illness.
Descartes identified three conditions to happiness, independent of external factors:
To discover what you should or should not do in all circumstances
Firmly carry out whatever is reasonable, without being diverted by irrational passions or appetites
If your will is used correctly, all good things you don’t possess are outside your power
Conditions One & Two
On the first and second conditions: Descartes views each circumstance of life to have an infinite amount of actions to take. There exist actions that are beneficial, actions that are harmful, actions that fall between the black and white and onto the grey as being better than some yet suboptimal nonetheless. Furthermore, he notes actions befalling the realm of irrationality; actions perhaps designed as enticing, but leading to an ultimately harmful net result. A good life under such a lens would manifest as making optimal decisions in time management, selecting constructive friends and people to be surrounded by, and having a clear life’s goal in mind that overarchingly shapes the actions of one– a career, a value, or an obligation to certain people like family. Yet many would protest this; self-regulation is difficult to exhibit when all of one’s friends are at the bar on a Friday night, or when one reaches the peak of exhaustion of practicing rote mathematics questions around 3 AM. People desire a good life, but would be quite hesitant to confine to such restrictive decrees.
Thus, it must be noted that Descartes’ views are only a lens. Rather than a binding law, the three conditions to independent happiness are listed not as having reached a static end goal, but a continuous process. To illustrate, his wording; rather than “have discovered”, it is “to discover; rather than “always have carried out”, it is “carry out”. Descartes embraces the infinitive verb form to emphasize the raw action rather than the concrete completion of an action; and it is in this that it must be clarified his conditions act moreso as guidelines. That is, in the majority of times, to discover what you should or should not do; in the majority of times, to carry out whatever is reasonable.
Even furthermore, past a certain point, too much restriction of an “appetite” results in a net negative. Picture the clock during a midnight study session. Productivity increases from 9 PM to 12 PM, and increases at a decreasing rate from 12 PM to 3 AM, and, ultimately, productivity decreases at an increasing rate from 3 AM to 8 AM, when it would do more harm than good to sleep– the “lost time” of working would be accomplished at faster rates the next day with more sleep. To contextualize this in other scenarios, perhaps skipping the Friday night bar to study, as an extravert, is beneficial for the first few weeks. Then ultimately, at some point, an extravert simply cannot function without letting loose; and they would perform better and become more productive if they had simply taken a night off at the bar to regain energy. All this is to demonstrate that Descartes intended these as overarching guidelines applying in the majority of times rather than at all times, and such was the way to carry out a good life.
Condition Three
On the third condition: Descartes effectively tackles the concept of regret and longing here– he propagates individuals to not dwell on things outside of one’s control. Descartes maintains that, to possess a clear and unburdened conscience, there exists little point in “repenting” when one has judged a situation to their best, and tried to act accordingly. In contrast to the first two conditions illustrating what to do, the third condition establishes what not to do: to separate what depends on a person, and what does not. The philosopher provides an exemplary model in the quote, “We do not desire to have, for example, more arms or more tongues than we have, and yet we do desire to have more health or more riches” due to the factor that “we imagine that the latter, unlike the former can be acquired by our exertions (CSMK, 258; AT IV, 266) ”. Materialistic achievements such as wealth, due to already possessing it to some extent, causes human beings to desire it to upscaled extents– when in reality, the likelihood of obtaining so can be so incredibly marginal for the vast majority of people. Thus, Descartes advises to spend no time pondering that which cannot be changed, and to focus on factors within one’s control.
Descartes, notably, solely places an emphasis on positivity in his conditions. He does little to discredit or slander those who perhaps are diverted by irrational appetites, or know not the actions they should do; rather, he takes a focus on what individuals are able to do in order to pursue a good life. In this manner, he constructively builds up others, aiming to leave no people behind. To Descartes, this is the formula for immunity to unhappiness, the recipe for the best life one may possibly achieve. Amongst the stresses of our modern society, certain things have remained timeless since the Age of Enlightenment; do what is right to the best of your ability, and ignore that which is outside of your ability– such is the key to a good life.
Sources:
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/descartes-ethics/>
https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2017-0031
Cottingham, J./Stoothoff, R./Murdoch, D./Kenny, A. (eds.) 1991. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes III. The Correspondence. Cambridge.
Annas, J. 2011. Intelligent Virtue. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199228782.001.0001