In this paper, I will explain Rene Descartes’ response from his Sixth Meditation to his dreaming argument from the First Meditation. Descartes’ Meditations are the processes of thinking that he attempted to create a stronger basis for our ways of thinking by doubting on various beliefs that are skeptical. In his Sixth Meditation, Descartes found an answer to his doubt and used that to refute his first premise of the dreaming argument. He knew that he could actually tell the different whether he was dreaming or not by matching the information he perceived and tracing it back to his memory. I will first introduce Descartes’ dreaming argument and then explain why the premises in his dreaming arguments are valid. Finally, I will present Descartes’
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Descartes thinks that the first premise is true because he cannot distinguish between his senses of perceptions in his dream and in reality. For example, eating food in your dream would feel as real as eating food while you are awake. Descartes believes that when we are dreaming, we are doing a certain thing and perceiving the environments and sensual stimuli as if we are awake. “How often, asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events-- that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire-- when in fact I am lying undressed in bed!”(p. 77). Since we perceive the same experiences, it would be hard to tell if we are awake or …show more content…
Even though Descartes did not completely trust his senses, but he found that they were somehow significant for determining whether he was awake or dreaming. “… all my senses report the truth much more frequently than not”(p. 122). Descartes found that it was possible to tell whether he was asleep or awake. He used this finding as an answer to his doubt. In the Sixth Meditation, he states, “…in that dreams are never linked by memory with all the other actions of life as walking experiences are” (p. 122). Based on this finding, I will reconstruct the refutation to his dreaming argument as
Descartes thinks that the first premise is true because he cannot distinguish between his senses of perceptions in his dream and in reality. For example, eating food in your dream would feel as real as eating food while you are awake. Descartes believes that when we are dreaming, we are doing a certain thing and perceiving the environments and sensual stimuli as if we are awake. “How often, asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events-- that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire-- when in fact I am lying undressed in bed!”(p. 77). Since we perceive the same experiences, it would be hard to tell if we are awake or …show more content…
Even though Descartes did not completely trust his senses, but he found that they were somehow significant for determining whether he was awake or dreaming. “… all my senses report the truth much more frequently than not”(p. 122). Descartes found that it was possible to tell whether he was asleep or awake. He used this finding as an answer to his doubt. In the Sixth Meditation, he states, “…in that dreams are never linked by memory with all the other actions of life as walking experiences are” (p. 122). Based on this finding, I will reconstruct the refutation to his dreaming argument as