Joshua Sepulveda 80514728 Introduction to Philosophy 1301-002 9-25-2015 Dream & Evil Demon Argument Really old Rene Descartes sat before a fire. Having absolutely no worries, he sat, and thought, and thought. He had waited so long for this very moment. He was retired and it was finally his time to establish everlasting knowledge. After analyzing previous knowledge, Descartes came to realize that even his own senses could deceive him. He admitted to himself that there are things taken in by the senses, which cannot possibly be doubted by any individual. Things and situations like how he is sitting down at this very moment touching a paper. Not everything is what it seems though. Individuals cannot be so sure about everything they experience. Descartes’s thought that even your senses could betray you. That is why as he sat before the fire, he introduced two theories on his paper which came to be known as his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes’s famous theories of Dream and Evil Demon show how the body senses can easily be deceived. …show more content…
Descartes sat and looked at his paper and thought to himself how not only was he is able to see the paper, but also feel the paper, just like how he was able to feel the warmth of the fire in front of him.
He also thought just how easy it was that he could also be dreaming about everything that was happening. He thought about how often he did the exact same thing, sitting, wearing a winter nightgown hearing the fire crackle, relaxing on his thinking chair. When in reality he was laying on his bed sleeping and dreaming. He then remembers that there have been times in his life that he has perceptions just like the ones he usually has in sensation while he is dreaming. He thought, “I see so plainly that there are no reliable signs by which I can distinguish sleeping from waking.” What if Descartes was not sitting before a fireplace, but was simply enjoying a goodtime sleep after all the thinking about all of these ideas and
theories? What he was absolutely sure about was that he was able to look at the paper and hold it right in front of him. He was also able to control all of his body parts including his head, his hand, and his eyes. There was no doubt about that. Then he thought, I am certainly awake but why don’t we just suppose that I am really dreaming, just for the fun of it? I mean that is what philosophy is all about anyway right? That all of the control I have over my body, like shutting my eyes or putting out my hand purposely are only illusions, and we actually do not have a body or a head or even hands. We must admit to ourselves though, that the objects in our dreams are as if they were painted images that come from real things previously seen throughout life. Meaning, these painted images we have about our hands, our eyes, and our bodies could have not been painted unless they represent real objects in the outer world. That means our hands our eyes and our bodies are very much real. Descartes gives an example of painters to further explain his theory. Even if painters were to paint something extravagant that no one has ever seen, something unreal, and out of this world, there has to be something real about the painting, like the colors that were used to paint it. Paintings are based and inspired by all kinds of objects that exist in the real world. Just like how the things we dream about. We dream about the things we have seen, tasted smelled, listened, and touched in this world. You obviously have seen different representation of aliens in movies like E.T. or Alien vs. Predator. So, even if you dream about aliens from another planet, you are still dreaming about something you have experienced on this earth. Another old belief that Descartes had was that there is a God that has created him and. He believed that God was too good to deceive him, and that there was no possible way in doubting his own existence. Thus he created the existence of an evil and powerful demon that uses all of his power to deceive him and causes him to have senses. “I will say that sky, air earth, color, shape, sound, and other external things are just dreamed illusions which the demon uses to ensnare my judgment.” The demon presents an illusion of Descartes’s senses. This means that he does not have a body, and it is just a brain. In this case, he cannot even trust his very own senses. Descartes still tries harder to obtain what he has been searching so long for. All Descartes wants is to get some certainty. But, it is the demon theory hypothesis that causes him to doubt all of the information that he receives from his senses. He then refuses to be controlled by this cunning demon, but is way too lazy and old to and he just gives up to the demon’s power. He concludes that anything based on sense experience cannot be certain. Descartes does not want the reader to take these theories to be taken literally. They are in fact metaphors used to demonstrate an individual’s senses can easily be deceived. Some people disagree with Descartes. They believe that we get all of our knowledge from our senses. The truth is though that, we all dream about things that we have experienced when we are awake. Sometimes it is hard to know whether you are awake or actually dreaming. An individual might be awake, but he actually cannot tell whether he is indeed awake or dreaming. Are you reading this paper right now? Or are you just dreaming about reading this paper? It is possible that you are dreaming right now and that all of your perceptions are false. Descartes has taught us that you cannot know anything about the world on the basis of perception.
Just because the person is so engulfed in a dream that it is impossible for that individual to recognize disparities between these 2 experiences, these same person can nevertheless tell the difference once he or she has awakened. Moreover, a sensation as clear as pain cannot feel the same as the pain we feel when awaken, some argue. After all, Descartes premise is based on the idea that there is nothing in reality that a dream cannot replicate so vividly that we are unable to tell the difference. But he also said that dreams borrow, in a sense, some but not all things from reality so these may not be but somewhat plausible events made up by our
According to Descartes, “because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wanted to suppose that nothing was exactly as they led us to imagine (Descartes 18).” In order to extinguish his uncertainty and find incontrovertible truth, he chooses to “raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations (Descartes 59).” This foundation, which Descartes is certain to be the absolute truth, is “I think, therefore I am (Descartes 18).” Descartes argues that truth and proof of reality lies in the human mind, rather than the senses. In other words, he claims that the existence of material objects are not based on the senses because of human imperfection. In fact, he argues that humans, similarly to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, are incapable of sensing the true essence or existence of material objects. However, what makes an object real is human thought and the idea of that object, thus paving the way for Descartes’ proof of God’s existence. Because the senses are easily deceived and because Descartes understands that the senses can be deceived, Descartes is aware of his own imperfection. He
When Descartes remembers the occasions that occur while he is dreaming, he falsely believes that he has a conscious mind, as in being awake. Reflecting on this, Descartes believes he cannot tell whether or not he is dreaming. In Descartes own words, he quotes:
In the first meditation, Descartes makes a conscious decision to search for “in each of them [his opinions] at least some reason for doubt”(12). Descartes rejects anything and everything that can be doubted and quests for something that is undeniably certain. The foundation of his doubt is that his opinions are largely established by his senses, yet “from time to time I [Descartes] have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once”(12). First, Descartes establishes that error is possible, employing the example of the straight stick that appears bent when partially submerged in water, as mentioned in the Sixth Replies (64-65). Secondly, he proves that at any given time he could be deceived, such is the case with realistic dreams. Further, Descartes is able to doubt absolutely everything since it cannot be ruled out that “some malicious demon … has employed all his energies in order to deceive me” (15). The malicious demon not only causes Descartes to doubt God, but also sends him “unexpectedly into a deep whirlpool which tumbles me around so that I can neither stand on the bottom or swim on the top”(16). Descartes has reached the point where he must begin to rebuild by searching for certainty.
Rene Descartes’ greatest work, Meditations on First Philosophy, attempts to build the base of knowledge through a skeptical point of view. In the First Meditation, Descartes argues that his knowledge has been built on reason and his senses, yet how does he know that those concepts are not deceiving him? He begins to doubt that his body exists, and compares himself to an insane person. What if he is delusional about his social ranking, or confused about the color of his clothes, or even unaware of the material that his head is made of? This is all because the senses are deceiving, even in our dreams we experience realistic visions and feelings. Finally, Descartes comes to the conclusion that everything must be doubted, and begins to build his
The. Hill, James. A. A. "Descartes' Dreaming Argument and Why We Might Be Sceptical of It. " The Richmond Journal of Philosophy 8 (2004): n. pag. Print.
A man whose ideas and perceptions of his time shocked many and he is considered the father of modern philosophy. His views and understanding of the world could be seen to many as radical, as he set out to understand himself and the nature of ideas and existence. His goal in writing the Meditations on First Philosophy written in 1641 was to show the clarity and distinction of ideas through the existence and immortality of God. This man, named Rene Descartes, had to place himself in the shoes of doubt, seen in meditation I. His doubts consisted of the senses in their original distinction such as a square book or a soft blanket and senses in seemingly apparent distinction which Descartes argues about when one dreams. He states that even the most vivid senses in our dreams could be subject to doubt.
Descartes’ theory of systematic doubt centered on his belief that individuals cannot trust their perceptions of the external world because sensory stimuli do not necessarily reflect true depictions of the world. Throughout his life, Descartes assumed information being received through his senses to be accurate representations of the external world until he realized that the senses as a source for information can occasionally mislead both himself and all other people. With this knowledge in mind, Descartes knew that an absolute confidence in sensory perception could deceive individuals about the external world and lead to a challenging of beliefs. As an example of this, Descartes considered that, as he wrote this meditation on systematic doubt,
case that Descartes would consider a case of thinking but you would not? Does dreaming count as a
You stop to observe the goings on of your day, things that are mundane and nothing out of the ordinary. How can you prove that what you are seeing is not all but a dream? According to Descartes’ Dream Argument, it is impossible to tell with Cartesian, or absolute, certainty that any given experience is not a dream. While we may believe what we perceive to be true, it is not always wise to trust our senses, as they have tendencies to fail us. Because perception begins at the senses, if we cannot trust them to be accurate one hundred percent of the time, there is no way to tell if any given moment is dreamed or reality.
Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.
The teaching of Descartes has influenced many minds since his writings. Descartes' belief that clear and distinct perceptions come from the intellect and not the senses was critical to his ultimate goal in Meditations on First Philosophy, for now he has successfully created a foundation of true and certain facts on which to base a sold, scientific belief structure. He has proven himself to exist in some form, to think and therefore feel, and explains how he knows objects or concepts to be real.
“We owe the notion of “the mind” as a separate entity in which “processes” occur to the same period, and especially to Descartes” (Rorty, 2008, p. 234). Plato was the first philosopher to argue that there was something beyond our body. Descartes agree with Plato on this theory and explored this idea more in-depth. Stating that these innate ideas exist, but they remain idle in our minds until a significant event awakens them. He arrived at this idea by doubting everything that he was taught was the truth, and he even doubted his own sense saying that they were deceptive, and after using philosophy of doubt he came to the realization of his existence through the logical reasoning. After he established that his senses were not real, he began to doubt his brain, he stated that our dreams are an interpretation of reality, even though they seem so real. He says that it was only thr...
He quickly releases that this is the foundation of most of his beliefs. He first acknowledges that sometime our senses can deceive us, but say that our senses is mostly sturdy. It is after this that Descartes realizes that there has been times where he has been sleeping and in his dream he was certain that he was awake and sensing real objects. Though his current senses may have be dream senses, he suggests that even dream senses are drawn from our experience of us awake. He then discovers that there are times in which he cannot distinguish whether he is in his waking state and his dream state.
But his habitual ideas and opinions are still present no matter how hard he tries not to present them, to solve this problem he decides that all of his opinions are false. Descartes finds himself certain about one thing that nothing is certain. Resorting back to the idea that his senses are the only way he is able to obtain the truth in life, he believes that his senses are apart of his mind and body. He uses a honeycomb to examine this topic that the body and mind are one. The wax changes shape therefore he uses imagination to understand it