The Place of Doubt in Establishment of Descarte's System of Thought

Despite being accused of scepticism in his own and later times, Descartes was not a sceptic at all but he used doubt as a means to reach an end. In every instance he speaks of true philosophy and metaphysics, he invites the audience to dismiss from their minds anything which can be the subject of the slightest doubt. What we need to take into account is that doubt and scepticism can be of use only to the level at which we succeed to establish a solid ground, and that after that level only an analytical method will help us in building a solid construction of knowledge. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that, unlike prevalent beliefs, doubt is not Descartes’ method but is his procedure for employing his method, which is indeed analytical. The role doubt plays for the Cartesian thinker is to provide a ground of certainty which can support the new construction of knowledge he intends to build. Descartes in fact uses doubt as a helpful tool for implementing analytical methods in the area of metaphysics.