Descartes Argumentative Analysis

Descartes gives three arguments to try and make himself believe that all his thoughts, beliefs and previous knowledge is nonexistent or has no value. He is trying to convince himself that he knows nothing. I think this is a rather difficult task to perform considering that no matter what you try to do to convince yourself of something you will always go back to your old thoughts and beliefs. It is just how our minds work.
The first main argument I am going to talk about is the Dreaming Argument (Meditation 1). Descartes explains that when he is dreaming he has waking experiences. These experiences make him unable to differentiate between which moments are dreams and which are waking. He suggests that possibly there is no waking in this world …show more content…
Descartes claims there must be an “I” that is capable of doubting and being deceived. He thought that he had a soul, which means he was nourished, moved, was able to think and sense things. This led him to think he had a body, but all these things were tossed into doubt. Except for one, he cannot doubt that he thinks. He may be able to exist without the other attributes, but he cannot exist if he does not think. Therefore, he only exists as long as he is thinking. Descartes concludes that he is just a thing that thinks (Meditation …show more content…
He suggests that he must know his mind way better than other things. He admits he may not be perceiving the piece of wax at all; it may just be a dream or an illusion. When he is perceiving the wax he cannot doubt that he is judging what he thinks to be wax. This implies that he exists. Each thought we have about the world outside us can only be doubtfully true, but it must confirm our existence and manifest the nature of our mind. It is plausible to know he exists, he is a thinking thing, his mind is better known than his body, and that all clear and unmistakable perceptions come from intellect and not from sense or imagination (Meditation