Descartes Methodological Doubt

In Descartes’ First Meditation, Descartes’ overall intention is to present the idea that our perceptions and sensations are flawed and should not be trusted entirely. His purpose is to create the greatest possible doubt of our senses. To convey this thought, Descartes has three main arguments in the First Meditation: The dream argument, the deceiving God argument, and the evil demon “or evil genius”. Descartes’ dream argument argues that there is no definite transition from a dream to reality, and since dreams are so close to reality, one can never really determine whether they are dreaming

Descartes’ skeptical arguments begin from the thought that everything can be doubted; the first being our senses. He claims that our senses can sometimes deceive us (e.g. when viewing things from far away). Things that can deceive us once, have the possibility to be deceiving us all the time—giving us reason to doubt all sensory claims. This leads to a problem since humans rely on empirical knowledge. If one cannot consider any claim delivered by sense to be true knowledge, then it gives reason for one to doubt reality. Following is the dream argument in which what seems to be tangible reality, is an effect of a dreaming experience. Descartes gives the example of dreaming he is sitting by a fire when in actuality he could be asleep

Descartes uses three arguments to question what we’ve previously known about doubt: the dream argument,

This argument is often called the “Dream Argument”. Descartes does have a response to this. He says one can assume that they are currently dreaming. If a person is dreaming then there are things that are perceived such as the body and other objects. These objects cannot be purely imagined, he compares this to how a painter’s mind works. A painter cannot create something never before seen. At some point the objects being observed have to exist. He goes on to say, some things like Physics and Astronomy can be doubted but the fundamental properties, Math and Geometry, cannot be doubted. His assertion is that whether in dream or reality two plus two will always add up to four. Descartes finishes by claiming, that if God is all-powerful and has given Descartes only true beliefs. Descartes being his own greatest skeptic makes his final judgment. It is possible that some trickster is inside of Descartes mind changing everything he believes to be true. For example, the evil demon may trick Descartes into believing that two plus two equals five. Descartes would have no way of knowing reality from fiction. This is the famous “Evil-Demon Argument” which Descartes

Descartes as a rationalist believes that knowledge comes from the mind alone. During the First Meditation, Descartes came to the conclusion that there must be some kind of evil deceiver that "leads him to a state of doubt" (Descartes 77). Descartes starts out with the fact that distant sensations are subject to doubt and uncertainty. He then goes on to try and cast doubt onto close sensations. Descartes starts off by stating that close sense perception must be certain because we are not crazy, and only a insane person would doubt what was right in front of them. Descartes then uses the dream argument to cast uncertainty on close sense perception because "they are as lively, vivid and clear as reality is when we are awake" (Descartes 76). Descartes then states that geometry and math are certain. "For whether I am awake or sleeping, two and three added together always make five, and a square never has more than four sides; and it does not seem possible that truths so apparent can be suspected of any falsity or uncertainty" (Descartes 98). Descartes comes to realize this certainty because math, geometry, and the simple sciences can be understood and proved through logic and reasoning. He then uses his Deceiver Argument to cast doubt on close sensations. He questions how we know for certain that God is good, and how we know that

Descartes’ Dreaming Argument comes from his thinking that there is no way of knowing if you are sleeping or if you are awake. To know something is to have no doubt of a fact, it must be a justified true belief. To be justified it must hold logical reason, you cannot state something is true without evidence. In order for it to be true it is not enough to justify it, but it must be justified with true facts. Finally, you must believe it, in order to know something it must be true in your mind. As a result Descartes doubts his consciousness as he cannot truly know that he is awake. This spurs Descartes to question if any perceived knowledge of reality is really true. Descartes calls his senses into questions as he notes, “it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once” and therefore concludes that as a result it is prudent, never to trust his sense. In

When Descartes remembers occasions when he is dreaming, he falsely believes he is awake. Reflecting on this, Descartes thinks he cannot

Along this process, Descartes invented the possibility of the Evil Demon. This demon could trick one into believing false ideas, turning what Descartes now thought of as fact into a false statement. Descartes has even begun to doubt the external world, his body and the basics of mathematics; it seems impossible to know if he is truly correct in his observations of the world if there is a possibility of deception lurking (Descartes 2-3). However, Descartes had found one solid belief; the Evil Demon could not deceive Descartes of the fact that Descartes exists. By the Evil Demon giving Descartes an idea or a thought, Descartes must exist in order to receive this thought therefore Descartes does exist (Descartes 4).

In the dream argument Descartes’ thinks that sometimes while he is dreaming, he falsely thinks that he is awake. After he reflects on this, Descartes thinks that he can’t ever tell if he is dreaming or not. He then shares the idea that maybe it is all just a dream. Although some beliefs we form in our dreams are false, the material for our dreams comes from things we experience while awake. Descartes points out that no matter how much it may seem you are awake; it is also possible for you to have that same experience while dreaming. His ideas about dreaming give him reason to doubt all of his sensory beliefs. In the last part of his argument he states that if he cannot tell whether or not he is dreaming, then how can he trust anything his senses

Descartes’s dream argument focuses on the idea that posteriori knowledge is not credible. Knowledge that is based on observational information and experienced senses is not possible in Descartes’s argument. His reasoning behind this argument is that he cannot differentiate between whether he is asleep or awake. When Descartes is dreaming, he sometimes believes that he is fully conscious. Thus, when he is awake, he cannot know whether he is awake or dreaming.

Descartes’ dream argument establishes itself based on the premise that I cannot distinguish between my most clear and evident perceptions and vivid dreams. He begins this argument by pointing out how our main source of belief, our senses, can be deceptive. Descartes flirts with the idea that possibly his senses are deceiving because he is insane.

Hence, Decartes' dreaming argument states that when you dream, you can falsely trick yourself into thinking your experiences are happening in the present reality. For this reason, we should bring doubt to all of our senses. Descartes argues that since you can’t know when you are asleep and when you are awake, then it is reasonable to believe that you cannot trust any of your senses if they can deceive you to this extent. Since Descartes believes that even in cases where everything seems to be going well (your senses are properly functioning and there are no outliers in the environment), you should still doubt what you know because your senses can be deceiving you. However, I find this argument not to be plausible.

Our senses can be doubted and we cannot trust it as a source of knowledge. Similarly, dreams do not equal perception; seeing an external reality that is through our imagination and is beyond basic truths. Then there is our malicious demon, which is the cause for deceptions and misleading as it can so greatly deceive us and is used to cloud Descartes’ judgment. All his beliefs in the world are doubtful and cannot serve as a foundation for the sciences. The fact that Descartes has that self doubt and reasoning indicates his

Descartes, being a philosopher who believed strongly in his sleep, pondered over the fact that he sometimes would have trouble distinguishing his experiences in dreams from waking experiences. Systematically our senses are deceiving us, and since some of our beliefs are based on perceptions, our dreams could indeed make us perceive false perceptions and senses, right? Well, this is how Descartes formed his argument of dreaming. This argument relates directly with his argument of error about our senses deceiving us, and once something deceives us, it is never trustworthy again. So since our senses have been proven deceivable in the past, then there is no way to trust them now. This is where he forms his conclusion that we must doubt everything

Descartes thinks that even the truths about arithmetic and geometry are open to suspicion of being false because if you are able to doubt something, you are not able to accept it. In order for him to accept any principle or set of principles, there cannot even be the slightest amount of doubt or the idea would be discarded. This doubt fails to be seen in Descartes dream argument because he says that everyone makes simple mathematical mistakes at times, whether being awake or asleep. As long as we are prudent, Descartes believes the principles of mathematics like geometry should be protected from doubt whether we uncover them in our dreams or not. The argument of the deceiver on the other hand, seems to leave arithmetic and geometry open to