Renee Descartes False

Renee Descartes writes on the uncertainty that he has of his memories and experiences in his paper titled “The Cogito”, which was written in 1643. The main focus of this paper is Descartes coming to terms that nothing is really certain other than the fact that Descartes himself exists and thinks. Descartes comes to this uncertainty since he believes that he has no reason to believe in any sense experience that he has. Descartes’ lack of belief of the external world is clear when he writes that he supposes “that all things [he] sees are false” (qtd. in Jacobsen 193). He furthers the point that it is not only his visual experiences, but every other sensory experience has been a falsity. He states that he imagines that “body, figure, extension, movement and place are but the fictions of [his] mind” (193). Later on in the essay, he explains how he comes to the conclusion that all of his experiences have been false. He attributes all of the memories that he has of sensual experiences to an …show more content…
In his other papers, Descartes speaks of being a methodological skeptic. Being a methodological skeptic is attempting to eliminating all possible false beliefs and then from that basis, gaining only true beliefs. By claiming that he is uncertain that his sense experiences may be false is a huge step towards this skepticism. He then contrives through logical reasoning that it is the case that he is a existing entity that has the ability to think. These beliefs, to Descartes, are beliefs that are proven to be true and cannot be proven otherwise, making these beliefs impervious to any methodological skeptical doubt. This metaphysical examination of self-identity and experience is one that clearly has a lot of weight. While there are not as many people willing to believe that they are being deceived by an evil demon or any other sort of deceiver, his methodological reasoning is strong enough to warrant examination in modern