What Is Rene Descartes Reality

The topic of this essay is Descartes’ First Meditations and I will be discussing in detail the Dreaming argument and the Evil Demon argument.

This essay will attempt to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Descartes’ dreaming argument and evil demon argument. Through discussion, I will show why the evil demon argument is more plausible than the dreaming argument. The essay will give a brief definition of the two arguments and explain why these arguments are important. Then I will discuss the two arguments, considering both sides and referencing previous work by other philosophers. I will conclude with a short summary of the topics covered.

Descartes organised his ideas on knowledge and skepticism to establish two main arguments, the dreaming argument and the evil demon argument. The dreaming argument suggests that it is not possible to distinguish between having a waking experience and dreaming an experience. Whereas, the evil demon argument suggests that we are deceived in all areas of our experiences by an evil demon. This essay will investigate the validity of the arguments and to what extent the conclusion of these arguments is true. The soundness and the extent to which the premises are true will also be explored. After evaluating these arguments it will be concluded that the dreaming argument is valid, but is not sound. Whereas, the evil demon argument is both valid and sound.

Renee Descartes is often cited as one of the founding fathers of contemporary philosophy. Descartes wrote one of Philosophy’s most famous essay’s “Meditations”. The essay begins with Descartes declaring he will no longer accept any opinions that can be considered false or untrue. “Skepticism” is an attitude, which doubts the truth of something else. Rather than question the validity of everything he currently knows, Descartes chooses to rid his mind of everything and start from scratch. His idea is to begin with only using things he knows to be true and forming a foundation. The first step it to consider his sense, such as sight, sound, taste, touch etc., as something true. Descartes admits that sometimes even our observations may be different from reality. Descartes says

My thesis for this essay is that the authenticity of knowledge is derived from intuitive faculty. This commentary on principle number 28 of Rene Descartes Principles of Philosophy was written in order to reveal the mind and body debate and to exhibit the theory that God is not a deceiver. Through his work, Descartes is able to justify his position by the use of clear and distinct perceptions as a method to build up a “systematic body” of certain knowledge. Understanding Descartes and his conclusions regarding the

Rene Descartes sought to find a truth in his apple basket that relied on evidence that could not be doubted. In essence, his entire Meditations is a study upon the very presence of doubt and an explanation of why it exists. The beginnings of this Cartesian philosophy take place at one of the largest foundations for philosophy and science; our experiences. How we interact and observe the world and what we have learned from it are all brought into question because of Descartes’ doubt. Further into his Meditations, this doubt manifests itself into the Evil Genius or Deceiver, who manipulates our experiences to trick and deceives us into believing things to be true or false, thus shattering our understanding of how the world really is or even if

Though unstated throughout his meditations, Descartes primary goal in the Meditations is to lay a strong foundation for the mathematical science that is emerging during his lifetime. There are two Aristotelian doctrines that Descartes wants to reject, the first which is final causation. The second is qualitative science, because Descartes tends to favor quantitative science over final causation. In Descartes’s first meditation his method of doubt is seen clearly since he knows that he believes same false things, but he doesn’t know which of his beliefs are fake.. Descartes is in search of something that cannot be doubted to serve as a secure foundation or knowledge, and we cannot doubt all our beliefs one by one. In the first meditation Descartes attacks the foundations of his knowledge, but slowly he’s foundations will fall. Descartes has three foundations in which he will challenge, the first which challenges his perceptual illusion, the second which is the dreaming state, and the third, which is the evil demon.

In Descartes’ “First Meditation” he examines the things in the world that can be called into doubt. Descartes wants to know what things he could be absolutely sure of. He decides that even if something is slightly false he will treat it as though it is completely false. Descartes concludes that he cannot be sure of the physical, however he is certain of his own existence and that he is a thinking thing.

Within meditation one Descartes subjects all of his beliefs regarding sensory data and even existence to the strongest and most hyperbolic of doubts. He invokes the notion of the all powerful, malign demon who could be deceiving him regarding sensory experience and even his understanding of the simplest mathematical and logical truths in

Rene Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophy because he believed in the abandonment of all preconceived and inherited notions for a fresh start (Pojman, 182). In his philosophical work, Descartes created a complete and unique thinking with his own rules that differs from other philosophers (182). Also through his short and well written sets of meditations, he argues that the acquisition of truth or knowledge is only by reason, without demanding any knowledge from sensory experience (189). Descartes reluctantly views the empirical knowledge as an invalid system of belief to obtain the truth, but only through reason (190). In this paper, I will argue that, it is not only the reason that is essential, but also sense perception

The author addresses the problem whether we can be certain of the conclusions we make; then Descartes says that there is a demon who tries to deceive us, meaning even our senses can deceive us and we cannot be certain since the physical objects might just be dreams. Moreover, Descartes presents the view that he cannot doubt his own existence even though he can doubt any other things in the world, which can be seen from “I am, I exist” (Descartes 160). This is due to the fact that the thinking thing which is “I” confirms the existence of “I”, otherwise we would doubt what we “question” (the thought itself) which can never be true. The author discusses about the relationship between the body and the

Descartes proposed to modern theologians about his evidences of god’s existence and human’s soul immortality. This specific importance for matters of religion does not mirror any interest lost in following the aims of science. By directly differentiating body from mind, it was the hope of Descartes to maintain a different field for the church while guarding scientists’ freedom to create mechanistic grounds of philosophical phenomena. In this way, he hypothesizes the ability to fulfill Christian doctrine requirements, but dejected the interference of the religious doctrines in matters of science. This will raise further notable exploration of the material world. To the meditations arrangements, Descartes puts more

Descartes begins his Meditation observing that there have been many occasions in the past when he had thought he was acquiring important knowledge yet subsequently discovering to have been mistaken. Therefore he aims to find a method that will render the research absolutely immune from the very possibility of error. The method of doubt is not only an epistemological method, but successfully fulfills the purpose of Descartes by helping to achieve important metaphysical results.

“Descartes sets out in his quest for certainty by thinking first about the evidence that comes through the senses: seeing touching, smelling, tasting and hearing. Can we trust our senses? Not really, he concluded. Think about what you see. Is your sight reliable about everything? Should you always believe your eyes?... We all occasionally make mistakes about what we see. And, Descartes points out, it would be unwise to trust something that has tricked you in the past. ”

In “Mediations” Descartes argues that in order to have knowledge about something you shouldn’t be able to doubt it. He does so by using the method of doubt, you have to take all your beliefs and subject them to doubt. If you can doubt your beliefs, even a little, then they are deemed false. Descartes gives two strong arguments to support his argument which are the dream hypothesis, the idea that you might actually be asleep instead of being awake, and the evil demon hypothesis, the idea that an evil demon is committed to deceiving you to make everything you think you know false. In this paper, I will argue that I both agree and disagree with Descartes, but let’s first get into the background of Descartes ideas.