The Logical Fallacies of Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy

The Logical Fallacies of Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy

Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy includes a proof for the existence of material objects, such as trees. Descartes accomplishes this by first doubting all things, from which he learns that he can be certain of nothing but his own existence as a thinking thing. From this established certainty, Descartes is able to provide proof for the existence of God, and, finally proof of the existence of material objects. Descartes’ proof of God, however, from which the proof of material things is made possible, is suspect: the proof relies on knowledge of clear and distinct ideas but knowledge of clear and distinct ideas relies on the existence of God. Furthermore, even if Descartes could manage to escape this circular method of proof, Descartes’ proof of his own existence is problematic.

Descartes begins his series of proofs by assailing the foundations of everything he once believed to be true. He reasons that all false principles will come crashing down as the foundations upon which they stand are brought to nothing. But, that he can at least be certain of those principles that remain. And if nothing remains, he can at least be certain that there is nothing of which he can be certain.

Descartes tells us that everything that he has "so far accepted as true [he] learned either from the senses or through the senses" (Biffle, 22). In light of this, Descartes proceeds to inquire into the reliability of the senses, the foundations upon which all his beliefs have so far rested. Descartes recalls the fact that the senses deceive him every night in his dreams. Specifically, he recalls the many times that he has believed himself to be awake, when he w...

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...mselves. It is this lack of an external check that makes it very difficult to construct a proof wrought from pure reason that is neither circular nor falsely assuming. In science, checks our found in phenomenon. If a theory is logically sound but does not work in the physical world, it is ruled out. Maybe we will find a similar check for ideas, or maybe we will devise a way around this problem of checking ideas. Either way, the problem is present, and it seems that ideas are not a likely place to find truth.

Works Cited

Biffle, Christopher, et al A Guided Tour of Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy Mayfield Publishing Company 2000

Cahn, Steven, ed., Classics of Western Philosophy, 5th. edition, Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company, 1999.

Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy. Trans. Cress. Indianapolis, U.S.A: Hackett, 1993.