Pros And Cons Of Rene Descartes

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Descartes cared deeply about discovering the truth. Like everybody, he had certain beliefs about the world that he thought to be correct. However, Descartes differs from the vast majority of human beings in that he was not content with these beliefs. Instead, he set himself an ambitious goal: to discover the ultimate truths behind the universe itself. To do this, Descartes started by doubting his opinions. His senses, he reasons, have deceived him before, and “it is a mark of prudence to never to place our complete trust in something that has deceived us even once (14).” But he raises an objection to his own argument: Although sometimes our senses are not accurate, how could we doubt some things as we perceive them, such as the existence of the things immediately in front of us? His refutation is simple and straightforward: we could simply be dreaming. Things that seem obvious and certain may simply be imagined. From this reasoning, Descartes concludes that even our senses cannot be trusted. …show more content…

However, there are many instances in which dreams seem real but are not. A particularly realistic dream might even be mistaken for reality, at least temporarily, until one becomes fully awake and alert. With the passage of time, something that occured in a dream can be misremembered (if it is not too bizarre or fantastic) as a real event. It is not always easy to tell if something is real or imagined during a dream; in fact, Descartes argues that there is no sure way to tell if one is truly awake or simply dreaming. Because of this, Descartes believes that even our senses, through which we perceive the world, might not give us an accurate representation of

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