Episode 2.74 (This time for real.)

Can Descartes Escape Solipsism?

In this episode, Michael and Zach tackle one of the most common—and serious—objections to Descartes’ project: the Thomist charge that radical doubt collapses into solipsism. If all that survives the doubt is “I am a thinking thing,” how do we ever get back to the real world, other minds, or trustworthy knowledge?

Rather than stopping at the cogito, this conversation traces Descartes’ actual escape strategy, step by step. From the certainty of the thinking self, to contingency, to the necessity of a self-existent God, the discussion focuses on the critical move: God’s moral perfection as the foundation for epistemic trust. Without a non-deceptive God, solipsism wins. With one, Descartes claims a narrow—but real—bridge back to reality.

Along the way, the episode weighs:

-Why Thomists argue Descartes starts in the wrong place

-Whether the “Cartesian Circle” is fatal or misunderstood

-If moral perfection can legitimately follow from necessity

-Why radical doubt is a method, not a lifestyle

-Where the real fault line lies between Thomist and Cartesian epistemology

The conclusion is deliberately careful: Cartesian doubt does not entail solipsism—but it risks it unless its theistic rescue succeeds. The road out is narrow, but it is not imaginary.

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