Will, Certainty, Autonomy

While Descartes presents his project as a quest for Certainty, it can also be interpreted in Ethical terms--a quest for, in Spinozistic terms, Adequacy, or in Kantian terms, Autonomy--an interpretation encouraged by Descartes' own ascription of Doubting to a process derived from 'Agito', i. e. 'I activate'. Accordingly, the pivotal transition from the certainty of 'I think' to that of 'I am a thinking being', can also be interpreted as autonomy-preserving, i. e. as a transition from an active process to an active idea. Hence, insofar as a belief that Descartes proceeds to derive from that foundation maintains Certainty, the adoption of the belief for practical purposes is guaranteed to be autonomous, though Spinoza and Kant, as well as Aristotle, develop other principles of Autonomy, i. e. the idea of God, the law of Practical Reason, and the Golden Mean, respectively. Here, the thesis that 'Will is the immediate matter of Comprehension' is an analogous attempt. For, the positing that Belief functions fundamentally in combination with the exercise of Will, establishes it as primarily at the service of the Voluntary principle of Experience.