Analysis Of Descartes Dreaming Argument

Although Descartes argument seems plausible decades ago, now there are ways to weaken is argument. In the science of psychology which focuses on the brain one can find that there are ways of knowing one is dreaming or sleep. Descartes even contradicts himself when he asserts “that even if all of our sensory experience is but a dream, we can still conclude that we have some knowledge of the nature of reality”. I believe that Descartes knows that he is not dreaming in a constant state of dream but that there is a sense of reality that one experiences. What one experiences are senses such as smell and touch that one cannot perform in a dream world. Being able to touch and have the sensation of touching an item such as a table in a dream does not happen. The sensation of pain is also an indicator of a reality that does not exist in the reaffirms that one is not in reality.

The Evil Demon Hypothesis is an important component of the Method of Doubt. Descartes used the Method of Doubt to find what is true by withholding assent from all beliefs that are dubitable. However, if Descartes was to scrutinise everything he believed, he would be left with an

To expand on his first argument, Descartes' deceiving God argument states that our deceptions are caused by an all powerful God. Humans are capable of being deceived because we are imperfect, unlike God, who is essential flawless. If we can agree on the definition of God, an all powerful and omnipotent being who created us, then we can argue that he has the power to deceive even our most reliable senses. Descartes expresses his compounding doubts as "How do I know that he did not bring it about that there is no earth at all, no heavens, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, and yet bringing it about that all these things appear to me to exist precisely as they do now?" (Descartes 491). This excerpt

An objection to this argument is that we can distinguish being awake and being asleep. If we can remember our dreams once we are awake, we can recognise them as dreams as they generally don’t make sense which differs from our logical conscious experiences. Dreams are usually only coherent for a short period of time which is a distinct difference from being awake. Once we are conscious, even our most vivid unconscious experiences can be recognised as dreams. Your waking experiences can be intensely recalled whereas you do not always remember your unconscious experiences. I believe that this is a weak argument because sometime struggle to fully distinguish between reality and our dreams as our unconscious experiences are overwhelmingly intense and life-like.

This is Descartes’ Evil Demon argument. These two arguments are important as they bring up many queries about how we live our lives, and if we can really be certain of anything around us at all.

The last step in Descartes argument says if he cannot tell whether he is dreaming, then how can he trust any of his senses telling him about the environment? To know anything about the external world on the basis of his sensory experiences, it seems like

The dreaming argument was based upon the idea that both waking and sleeping (dreaming) experiences can be very similar, and that distinguishing between the two may not be possible. This led to Descartes doubting that waking experiences are actually infact waking experiences and not dreams. Descartes developed this argument and claimed that in order to be certain of any experiences, we have to be certain that we are not dreaming. However, Descartes continued and

In the fifth and last skeptical hypothesis, Descartes raises the possibility of there being an evil demon that deceives him into believing falsehoods. Descartes has established arguments that either support or demolish the thoughts for all of these skeptical hypotheses. As stated previously, the dream argument points out that people may actually be dreaming when they think they are living in reality. Descartes used his methods of detecting falsities to evaluate this argument.

It is deception from the sense that causes this mistrust for Descartes and brings forth the Dream Argument. The human senses as well feel very real, just as they do in reality, and this is one of the first things that have Descartes question the differences between being awake and dream. Due to the trust issues it he becomes unsure of whether he is dreaming or not. When it comes to dreaming Descartes thinks that there could possibility that some certain God that may have easily deceived him in falsely believing in things could appear to be correct but are not. However Descartes says that it God is described as a supremely good being (Descartes, 21). God has always been a being that is worshiped and why would so many people worship an evil God if he brings no positives to their lives. Descartes however is not 100 percent positive on whether God is being deceptive or not being deceptive. James Hill says that “[the] key move that Descartes then makes is to highlight the lack of insight one has into one’s condition when dreaming. It is this lack of insight, and Descartes’ way of interpreting it, which forms the backbone of the dreaming argument” (Hill, 2). To shorten that down, the minimal explanations to why and how dreams occur is the foundation for Descartes’s Dream Argument.

By the first premise Descartes refers to an activity that the body does not participate in. For instance, perception and walking are two activities which either directly requires the body (walking) or relies upon the body (perception). The activity of thinking can be done without a body. You can clearly and distinctly imagine yourself without a body, but you cannot imagine not thinking. Premise 2 indicates this distinction even more. Since the activity of thinking is separate from the body then this activity does not fall into doubt. Anything the body senses or is part of the body can be doubted because the mind’s eye would only perceive the image the body creates which has previously be shown to be dubious. A possible objection is that Descartes is pointing to another representation which the body has created. For instance, the body has created the image of thinking which the mind’s eye views. In addition, could we not be dreaming and thus deceived that we are thinking or could there be a demon deceiving

The Dreaming argument first showed up in Descartes First Meditation, where he focusses on the task to educate himself on his own doubt. When meditating he starts to think about how he has a hard time distinguishing himself from being asleep and awaking. This is how the dreaming argument came forth. The Dreaming Argument easily said is “If I am certain of anything, then I have to be certain that

    The Dream Argument states that because we are unable to eliminate the possibility that we are dreaming our perceived reality, we cannot know anything about it. Formally, we can express this as:

However, the Meditator realizes that he is often convinced when he is dreaming that he is sensing real objects. He feels certain that he is awake and sitting by the fire, but reflects that often he has dreamed this very sort of thing and been thoroughly convinced by it. On further reflection, he realizes that even simple things can be doubted. Omnipotent God could make even our conception of mathematics false. One might argue that God is supremely good and would not lead Descartes to believe falsely all these things. He supposes that not God, but some "evil demon" has committed itself to deceiving him so that everything he thinks he knows is false. By doubting everything, he can at least be sure not to be misled into falsehood by this demon.

Dream Skepticism has been debated largely since Descartes’ projection of those ideas. Descartes believed many irrational thoughts in relation to dreaming, which proposed ideas that nobody at his time had ever seen before. Descartes’ challenging of the traditional ideas and proposing new ones in which challenged the minds of the individuals, as well as trying to convince the masses that dreaming had some sort of value for an individual that would carry on into his conscious world. Throughout these different ideas lied his main notion: the dreams produced in the human brain while unconscious are not false or fiction, rather, they present the truths that lie in our very minds and therefor should hold value to the dreamer himself. Descartes believed

The whole point of this method is for Descartes to find at least some truth that is way beyond any questions of doubt. However, what if people doubt that the two plus two does not equal to four but in reality of our minds, we all can conclude that is equals to four. After this point, Descartes introduces the idea of a “malicious god” or “evil demon” who’s only goal is to deceive us no matter what, Descartes says, “I will suppose, then, not that there is a supremely good God who is the source of all truth, but that there is an evil demon, supremely powerful and cunning, who works as hard as he can to deceive me” (Descartes 322.Right Side). Although we all know that two plus two equals four but what if the evil demon is deceiving us and in reality, it equals five. These three stages make up Descartes methodic doubt, where he attempts to remove all previous beliefs in order to find truth that is beyond any