Quote of the Day: Philosopher René Descartes on Why Brilliance Requires Action

Among the most famous polymaths and minds of history is René Descartes. He was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist and much more. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Descartes is considered the “Father of Modern Philosophy,” mostly thanks to his “break… [from] Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy” of the time and his “development and promotion of the new, mechanistic sciences.” Our quote of the daycomes from one of his most famous works, and highlights what he thought about a “good mind” without intention (spoiler: it’s nothing good).

Per Britannica, Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in Touraine, France, to a modestly noble family. His mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by his grandmother and his great-uncle. As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy reported, Descartes first became a mathematician, then a natural scientist/philosopher and finally a metaphysician. 

While metaphysics has changed in concept over time, it’s essentially a branch of philosophy that inspects the “nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter,” per the University of Georgia’s Department of Philosophy. As Britannica stated, Descartes came up with the “first modern version of mind-body dualism,” which holds that those are two very different and distinct entities. They report that his metaphysics is “rationalist” and combines the concepts of three “innate ideas of mind, matter and God.”

Descartes had much to say and made a lot of discoveries and theories that still stand the test of time. He left behind many words of wisdom, including today’s quote, which says that a brilliant mind is only as good as what you do with it.

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Quote of the Day by René Descartes

“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”

This quote is a modern translation of a line Descartes wrote in his 1637 treatise, Discourse on the Method. A treatise is a written discourse on something with arguments and evidence to back up the claims in it; this one is philosophical and autobiographical. 

Its full title (translated from its original French) is Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences. Famously, this is where Descartes wrote his most well-known quote: “I think therefore I am.”

As Texas A&M University reported, Descartes believed in logic and reason being “essential” for getting to the truth of something. And in this treatise, he came up with a new method for logical thinking, which had four rules: 

1. Don’t accept anything as true unless there is clear evidence.
2. Come at problems in pieces; break down a situation into smaller parts and address each small part of the problem to figure out the full answer. 
3. Start from the easiest thing to figure out and move up to the most complicated aspects. 
4. Double-check your work to make sure you didn’t miss anything or make a mistake. 

Our quote of the day appears in Part I, in the very first paragraph. Descartes says that “good sense” or common sense is mostly equal among men, and that differences of opinion or different levels in intellect aren’t necessarily because someone has more “good sense” than others. But rather, they just think in different ways. He then writes our quote:

“For it isn’t enough to have a good mind; what matters most is using it well. Sheer quality of intellect doesn’t make the difference between good and bad: the greatest souls are capable of the greatest vices as well as the greatest virtues. Nor is nimbleness of intellect the key to making discoveries: those who go very slowly but always on the right path can make much greater progress than those who sprint and go astray.”

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Deeper Meaning of René Descartes’s Quote—A ‘Good Mind’ Requires Action

If you take that full paragraph above, Descartes is saying that a good mind without action or purpose is worthless. He then shares a couple of bits of advice or wisdom: someone with great intellect isn’t necessarily better than someone else, and being quick-witted or sharp doesn’t mean that you’re going to make the biggest strides first (if at all). Even if it takes someone longer to figure something out, they’ll make more progress if they’re staying on the correct path and taking steps forward.

And Descartes is almost urging people against an elitist view of smart vs. “simple” people. He’s saying that intelligence can be subjective depending on how you use it; a highly intelligent person is only as smart as their outward actions.

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More Quotes from René Descartes

• “Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.”
• “For how do we know that the thoughts which occur in dreaming are false rather than those others which we experience when awake, since the former are often not less vivid and distinct than the latter?”
• “In truth, the most important thing for curing illnesses and maintaining health is good humor and joy.”
• “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
• “Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.”

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