The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great

by Ben Shapiro

As with Bacon, the good of man lay not in the search for God or the pursuit of a virtuous telos, but in the quest to better the material state of man. Morality would surely follow in the wake of man’s technological progress and increased scientific knowledge.13 Such knowledge, Descartes believed, could not be pursued without radical skepticism of received wisdom: “I ought to reject as absolutely false all opinions in regard to which I could suppose the least ground for doubt, in order to ascertain whether after that there remained aught in my belief that was wholly indubitable.” This led Descartes to doubt all of his senses—except his knowledge of his own thinking. Thus, Descartes stated, “Cogito, ergo sum”—I think, therefore I am. From this basis, he reintroduced a good God who would not create senses that lie to us.14