What is Descartes’s Method of Doubt? What is the method of belief (not Descartes)? How are these helpful
in critical thinking? Give some examples to support your argument.
Descartes`s Method of Doubt
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is widely regarded as the father of modern philosophy. His noteworthy contributions extend to mathematics and physics. Cartesian doubt is a form of methodological skepticism associated with the writings and methodology of Rene Descartes. Descartes thought that we could achieve absolute certainty by starting with radical doubt. He adopts this strategy in the Meditations on First Philosophy, where he raises sweeping doubts with the famous dream argument and the hypothesis of an evil demon. Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one`s beliefs, which has become a characteristics method in philosophy. Human being lives with various kinds of beliefs. A human being has the capacity to critically examine the validity of a given data. Without this critical function of doubt, human beings can be trapped with all kinds of false beliefs, knowledge, and misinformation.
Motivation
Motivation is again a product of good leadership. Motivation is highly personal, and it is the leaders responsibility to understand what motivates each individual and implement policies to obtain maximum performance from a group. The importance of the leaders role in motivating individuals is highlighted in Herzberg’s Two Factor theory. The theory highlights factors that must be in place to avoid dissatisfaction, hygiene factors, and factors that promote satisfaction, motivation factors, shown in Figure 4 (Pettinger, 2007). Herzberg’s theory helps to decipher what motivates individuals, but does not advise on how to implement this to produce maximum productivity from an individual, this is achieved by using the theory in conjunction with other motivational theories such as goal setting theory.
Figure 4: Hygiene and Motivating Factors (Pettinger,, 2006)
Goal setting is not just an important part of motivation, they are essential for both teamwork and successful leadership, they provide indication on what must be achieved, how much effort they must devoted to achieve it and they act as the primary source of job motivation for individuals, therefore setting them accurately is essential (Pettinger 2007). Specific and clear goals are the most effective motivators, and will lead to optimum performance, therefore it becomes essential for a leader to understand what motivates each individual within a group (Pettinger, 2007). Motivation is highly personal, and can differ massively across a group, so the leader must adapt how they motivate to suit each individual, this highlights the need for an organisation to implement policies that allow leaders to be flexible in how they reward individuals. Issues arise when goals are not set well, if the goals are ambiguous, unachievable or too easy then the individual will lose motivation (Pettinger, 2007). Once goals have been set it becomes essential for leaders to regularly assess how individuals are progressing towards them, if well then goals should be made more challenging, if they are struggling then the goals should be made easier. Goals also allow for leader to assess how the team are performing, and how their leadership style is functioning with the group, if goals are not being met the leader must adapt how the team interact together or their leadership style to achieve them.
Conclusions
The theories discussed provide a framework for understanding teamwork, lea