Rene Descartes 'Dream Argument'

The Method of Doubt is destructive, not constructive, and aims to destroy and rebuild our knowledge on firm foundations. Once Descartes used the Evil Demon Hypothesis, he was able to remove all prior beliefs which left him with a starting point from where he could rebuild all true knowledge. The hypothesis doesn’t try to prove the existence of the Evil Demon, but rather to prove scepticism of our senses and even our understanding of the simplest concepts like maths and science is correctly placed (SparkNotes Editors, n.d.). Some critics described the hypothesis as a counterweight our ‘habitual beliefs’ (Cottingham, 1976:261). The argument is such a hyperbolic assumption that it puts even our strongest beliefs into doubt. Professor Harry Frankfurt gave an alternative view on the function of the demon. According to him, one role of the demon is to raise the possibility that we make errors in mathematical judgement. More significantly he believed the Evil Demon Hypothesis tried to falsify mathematical knowledge by ‘casting doubt on the objects of mathematics’ (Cottingham, 1976:263). However I believe that the demon’s importance on mathematics is more of a side track from the First Meditations main idea and the main role of the demon is to raise doubts about the external world. By the end of the First Meditation, Descartes had reached a point of total deception. He cannot be sure of what he experiences

This is Descartes’ Evil Demon argument. These two arguments are important as they bring up many queries about how we live our lives, and if we can really be certain of anything around us at all.

When Descartes remembers occasions when he is dreaming, he falsely believes he is awake. Reflecting on this, Descartes thinks he cannot

In order to weigh up these arguments, it is important to understand Descartes’ reasons for formulating them: Descartes’ believes that it is important to be certain of the things that one believes to be true which, in turn, causes him to question the things that he has been certain of thus far. Because of this, he forms these arguments to further consider his theories about doubt and what it is to be truly certain of anything.

Descartes dreaming argument suggests that perhaps our senses cannot be fully trusted because we cannot be certain we are not dreaming, and this means we therefore cannot be certain of anything. His evil demon argument is similar but uses the idea of an evil demon deceiving you instead of your senses. These sceptical arguments mean that we cannot be certain of anything at all for it may be happening whilst we are dreaming, or we are being tricked into thinking it is happening. I do not agree with Descartes because I feel that I can be certain I am not dreaming, and I do not believe that other supernatural creatures; such as an evil demon exists.

Descartes’ initial dream argument is weak and proves to not hold up against his other skeptical hypotheses.

It is not easy to find evidence of a demon deceiving you if he controls your input of knowledge.

However, the Meditator realizes that he is often convinced when he is dreaming that he is sensing real objects. He feels certain that he is awake and sitting by the fire, but reflects that often he has dreamed this very sort of thing and been thoroughly convinced by it. On further reflection, he realizes that even simple things can be doubted. Omnipotent God could make even our conception of mathematics false. One might argue that God is supremely good and would not lead Descartes to believe falsely all these things. He supposes that not God, but some "evil demon" has committed itself to deceiving him so that everything he thinks he knows is false. By doubting everything, he can at least be sure not to be misled into falsehood by this demon.

He does this by attacking "straightaway those principals which support everything [he] once believed."(Pg60) He decides that he must not try to "show that all of his opinions are false, which is perhaps something [he] could never accomplish"(Pg59) but rather he should " withhold [his] assent no less carefully from opinions that are not completely certain and indubitable that [he] would from those that are patently false."(Pg.59) By doing this he will tear down all the false ideologies that he holds, and be subject to only the opinions that he can prove to be absolutely and necessarily true.

The whole point of this method is for Descartes to find at least some truth that is way beyond any questions of doubt. However, what if people doubt that the two plus two does not equal to four but in reality of our minds, we all can conclude that is equals to four. After this point, Descartes introduces the idea of a “malicious god” or “evil demon” who’s only goal is to deceive us no matter what, Descartes says, “I will suppose, then, not that there is a supremely good God who is the source of all truth, but that there is an evil demon, supremely powerful and cunning, who works as hard as he can to deceive me” (Descartes 322.Right Side). Although we all know that two plus two equals four but what if the evil demon is deceiving us and in reality, it equals five. These three stages make up Descartes methodic doubt, where he attempts to remove all previous beliefs in order to find truth that is beyond any

Descartes as a rationalist believes that knowledge comes from the mind alone. During the First Meditation, Descartes came to the conclusion that there must be some kind of evil deceiver that "leads him to a state of doubt" (Descartes 77). Descartes starts out with the fact that distant sensations are subject to doubt and uncertainty. He then goes on to try and cast doubt onto close sensations. Descartes starts off by stating that close sense perception must be certain because we are not crazy, and only a insane person would doubt what was right in front of them. Descartes then uses the dream argument to cast uncertainty on close sense perception because "they are as lively, vivid and clear as reality is when we are awake" (Descartes 76). Descartes then states that geometry and math are certain. "For whether I am awake or sleeping, two and three added together always make five, and a square never has more than four sides; and it does not seem possible that truths so apparent can be suspected of any falsity or uncertainty" (Descartes 98). Descartes comes to realize this certainty because math, geometry, and the simple sciences can be understood and proved through logic and reasoning. He then uses his Deceiver Argument to cast doubt on close sensations. He questions how we know for certain that God is good, and how we know that

Descartes' meditations are created in pursuit of certainty, or true knowledge. He cannot assume that what he has learned is necessarily true, because he is unsure of the accuracy of its initial source. In order to purge himself of all information that is possibly wrong, he subjects his knowledge to methodic doubt. This results in a (theoretical) doubt of everything he knows. Anything, he reasons, that can sustain such serious doubt must be unquestionable truth, and knowledge can then be built from that base. Eventually, Descartes doubts everything. But by doubting, he must exist, hence his "Cogito ergo sum".

Renee Descartes’ Method of Doubt is an incredibly interesting and mind bending philosophy to study, in this paper I will be exploring what his method was and the main tool he used for it. Descartes’ method begins with a notion that is simple to state but hard to imagine; that everything around us is not real, it’s a scary concept, and a huge one to take hold of so Descartes introduces a tool that helps to illuminate how much doubt there can be in the world around us. This tool is that of the evil genius, Descartes proposes that it is entirely possible that our minds are being controlled by an evil genius that wishes to deceive us into believing that the world around us is real. Descartes does not say that there is an evil genius; he offers the concept of the evil genius to allow us to open our minds and see how uncertain our world is.

     Through his philosophical search Descartes was able to find one indubitable certainty, that we are thinking beings. We always think, even when we have doubts that we are thinking we are still thinking because a doubt is a thought. Although Descartes found this one universal truth, he was still not able to believe in anything but the fact that he was a thinking being. Therefore he still doubted everything around him. He used this one certainty to try to find a system of knowledge about everything in the world. Descartes idea was to propose a hypothesis about something. For example he might say that a perfect being was in existence. He would go around this thought in a methodical way, doubting it, all the while trying to identify it as a certainty. Doubting everything was at first dangerous because in doubting everything he was also admitting that he doubted the existence of God, and thus opposing the church. However he made it a point to tell us at the beginning of his Discourse on Methods that what he was writing was only for himself and that he expected no one but himself to follow it (Descartes 14, 15). Descartes eventually managed to prove the existence of a higher being. He said that since he had the idea of a perfect being, then that perfect being must exist. His

Descartes arguments are mostly around what’s certain and what’s uncertain; doubts the physical world and if we really exist. Descartes is unsure about if evil demons really exist, so he cannot conclude that everything he’s sense telling him or anything at all is truth; Descartes illustrate his arguments and reasons for his doubts and ideas in the 6 meditations that explains his thought based on God's supreme and finite power in the existing world.