Descartes reasons for doubting his beliefs in meditations were because he wanted to prove a scientific method, he wanted to prove that true knowledge came from the mind and not in the sense. Descartes spent a lot of time separating the world into two substances using only the mind and body. He says science truth is made up of our body and religious truths deal with the soul and mind. His biggest question was can something be true if it can be doubted? He became a skeptic and started doubting everything to find the truth, everything had to be proven solid and could be broken down. He didn’t want to argue that noting exist but that we could prove something exist. He also argued that our sense were unreliable to the truth for example a mirage
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Locke say that there cannot be pain in a dream so that’s how you prove that you’re awake or sleep. Flanagan had a few questions about dreaming, one was “how can I be sure I am not always dreaming?” “Can I be immoral in my dreams?” “Are dreams conscious experiences that occur during sleep?” and lastly “does dreaming have an evolutionary function?” (iep.utm.edu)
According to Owen Flanagan’s book The Science of the Mind and he presents Descartes’ Modal Argument as follows:
“1. I cannot possibly doubt that I exist as a thinking thing. (This was established as we tried to doubt our existence and found ourselves, therefore, affirming it.)” (Flanagan/WordPress)
“2. I can doubt, however, that I have a body, and thus that I exist as a physical thing. “ (Flanagan/WordPress)
“3. Therefore, thinking is essential to what I am. My body is not. Furthermore, I know my mind more easily than I know my body. “From this I knew that I was a substance the whole essence or nature of which is to think, and that for its existence there is no need of any place, nor does it depend on any material thing so that this ‘me,’ that is to say, the soul by which I am what I am, is entirely distinct from body, and is even more easy to know than the latter; and even if body were not, the soul would not cease to be what it is.”
Locke say that there cannot be pain in a dream so that’s how you prove that you’re awake or sleep. Flanagan had a few questions about dreaming, one was “how can I be sure I am not always dreaming?” “Can I be immoral in my dreams?” “Are dreams conscious experiences that occur during sleep?” and lastly “does dreaming have an evolutionary function?” (iep.utm.edu)
According to Owen Flanagan’s book The Science of the Mind and he presents Descartes’ Modal Argument as follows:
“1. I cannot possibly doubt that I exist as a thinking thing. (This was established as we tried to doubt our existence and found ourselves, therefore, affirming it.)” (Flanagan/WordPress)
“2. I can doubt, however, that I have a body, and thus that I exist as a physical thing. “ (Flanagan/WordPress)
“3. Therefore, thinking is essential to what I am. My body is not. Furthermore, I know my mind more easily than I know my body. “From this I knew that I was a substance the whole essence or nature of which is to think, and that for its existence there is no need of any place, nor does it depend on any material thing so that this ‘me,’ that is to say, the soul by which I am what I am, is entirely distinct from body, and is even more easy to know than the latter; and even if body were not, the soul would not cease to be what it is.”