In part four of his Discourse on Method, René Descartes presents us with a powerful maxim: “I think, therefore I am.” While searching for absolute truth Descartes discerned that thinking, or generating knowledge, is intrinsically linked to being. To be the object of knowledge is to miss the truth. Still, many communities would disagree with Descartes’s dismissal of received knowledge. In class, Mikaela keenly argued that within the academy it is necessary to be both the object and subject of knowledge. Considering the variety of assignments and course structures, this duality is crucial to academic success.
Throughout the history course I’m taking this semester I’ve been evaluated both through essays and multiple-choice exams. The skills needed to complete these assignments are different, though not necessarily discrete. Multiple choice exams ask for rote memorization. I pay careful attention to the specific language used by my professor and in assigned readings. These explicit dates and phrases must be dedicated to memory as they will appear nearly unchanged on exams. When it is time for me to construct an essay, more active thinking becomes useful. My writing can’t simply be a blend of the words I’ve absorbed through lecture. I must follow my own interests, consider new questions, and engineer a unique thesis. To reach success in the academy, then, is to both receive and generate knowledge.
Maybe Descartes would argue that measures of received knowledge are useless. Yet courses and assignments typically seen as “subjective” still require a base of object learning. For instance, discussion based literature courses utilize a canon. In order to generate unique ideas, students must first study the same text and understand an objective history surrounding that text. If this shared base of knowledge did not exist between students, classroom discourse could not occur. When a subject of knowledge does not communicate effectively with fellow subjects, any knowledge generated becomes weaker.
I think, then, that Descartes may have mistakenly conflated the blind acceptance of received knowledge with working to understand received knowledge. This distinction is important, and ultimately helps us understand success within the academy. We must tirelessly work to expand our base of received knowledge and use that to endlessly generate newer, stronger ideas.