Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosphy

Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy is a philosophical work consisting of six meditations of things Descartes establishes cannot be known for certain, as well as attempts to establish all things that can be known undoubtedly. Descartes was one of the first major Western philosophers to attempt to construct a foundation of certainty about knowledge.
Meditation One concerns all things that can be identified as doubtful. Descartes explains how as a child he believed many false things. Descartes declares that he must put an end to those false beliefs before he can come by any true knowledge. He goes on to explain that he does not exactly have to prove his beliefs to be false, but needs to convince himself to avoid having beliefs that are not certain. He truly believes that he can find some doubt in every one of his false beliefs. As a result, what Descartes has accepted as the truth he has learned from his senses, and senses can often mislead someone. Although he believes that his senses can and do deceive him, there are still things that he doesn’t allow himself to doubt, even though they were learned with those very senses. He has decided to forget about all he thinks he knows and to start over from the foundations, building up his knowledge again on more definite justifications. Descartes thinks about the example of him sitting in front of the fire, wearing his winter dressing gown, and touching paper. At first he suggests that there is no way to deny that he is actually feeling those things, and he knows that from his senses. He then ponders if he is dreaming, because in a dream one would be thinking that you were feeling those things, but in reality one would not be. Descartes goes back and forth about dreams and rea...

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.... In his head, by doubting everything, he can at least be sure not to be misled into falsehood by this so-called demon.
Meditation One sets forth skeptical doubts as an issue of examination in their own right. Skepticism is a frequently discussed and strongly debated topic in today’s philosophy. Descartes was the first to produce the confusing question of how we can claim to know with sureness anything about the world around us, and the thought of what is knowledge or skepticism. The concept is not that these doubts are likely, but that their possibility can never be entirely disregarded. If we can never be positive, we cannot claim to know anything. Skepticism is an attempt to provide a specific, needed foundation for our knowledge and awareness of the world. Skepticism is frequently pushed too far and seen as a challenge to humankind’s very idea of rationality.