I believe Rene Descartes’ ideas in “Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and seeking Truth in the Sciences” are very well thought out and he made sure to explain to the readers exactly what he believes. For example, in part 2 of his discourse Descartes explains that he believes the best of ideas are those which come from a single individual rather than from ” the opinions of many different individuals.” To explain this idea, Descartes uses the example of the process of transforming a “semi-barbarous state” into a  civilization. Descartes explains that if the masses are left up to this task, they will form a civilization at an extremely slow pace and the present laws would only be achieved through “experience of the hurtfulness of particular crimes and disputes.” According to Descartes, there is are no greater laws than that of God – “It is thus quite certain that the constitution of the true religion, the ordinances of which are derived from God, must be incomparably superior to that of every other.”

I agree with Descartes that we as thinking human beings are all individually capable of limitless amounts of creativity and of great ideas. However, to say that the mind of one great and wise man is better than that of the masses (or of the well-educated) is in my opinion something that we cannot rely on.

Descartes claims that there are no greater rules than those stipulated by God. In the 1600s (the times in which Descartes wrote this discourse) the Catholic Church was still a very powerful institution that had a huge role in the Europe at the time. For example, most monarchies at this time believed in the idea of divine-right which states that Kings get their authority to rule from God.

By Descartes logic, The Church (more specifically, the Pope) and the divine kings are the only ones that are capable of creating laws for their land.  If God has put them in this position, then it is by His will that they govern.  It is not possible for one man to lead alone a nation or an empire. Each of these institutions recognized how difficult it would have been and therefore created courts and parliaments to better govern the people. If his theory on governance was so great, why do we have nations with representative democracies and governing bodies composed of committees? It is because we have come to learn that the perfect wise man is just an ideal but it will never be reached. Therefore we must rely on the wisdom of many  instead of searching for the one