Rene Descartes Meditations

In the Meditations, Rene Descartes seeks to develop secure foundations for knowledge. Descartes wants to break down the unstable and uncertain foundations that all his current knowledge is based on, in order to discover truth or certainty. Descartes argues that everything can be doubted, including all knowledge from the senses, and even simple mathematical principles, yet he searches for certainty. However, Descartes does not even explain the nature of knowledge, or provide sufficient reasons to believe the possible existence of absolute certainty in knowledge. Descartes argues that all knowledge from senses can be questioned or doubted, since his senses have often deceived him. He supports this claim with the example that he has sensory …show more content…
Descartes claims that all the sciences can be doubted because they are based on complex sensory perceptions that are not completely reliable. However, Descartes admits there are certain simple and fundamental things that are true even in his dreams. These are the qualities that make up all material things whether those things are perceived in dreams or in actual reality. For example, all material things have qualities, such as body, extension, shape, size, number, and location. Descartes claims that areas that study these simple and fundamental things can be certain beyond a doubt, such as math. He is hopeful about math, since it deals with the most simple and basic principles that would be true even if he was dreaming. He explains that beliefs, such as two plus three equals five or that a square has four sides seem certain and unreasonable to doubt. This hopeful certainty turns into doubt though. Descartes begins to think that he could be wrong about even the simplest things such as math. He could get the same incorrect answer every time he adds two and three like in the Ebbinghaus illusion, in which we see the same sized circles as different sizes every time we look at the image. Just like his senses deceive him, Descartes imagines there could be a deceptive God or a evil demon that deceives him about even simple calculations and beliefs. It could be that the evil demon makes all those qualities math studies, such as shape, size, and number seem real to him when they are wrong or don't even exist. For instance, size might seem like a definite and specific quality to him of material things, but that might be a deception just like the relative size of circles in the Ebbinghaus illusion. As a result, all his thoughts and beliefs about everything could be