Descartes’ Arguments in his First Meditation
“I should begin again from the most basic foundations if I ever wished to establish anything firm and durable in the sciences...I will devote myself...to this general overturning of my beliefs (18). In Descartes’ first Meditation, “Things which can be called into doubt”, Descartes aimed to find grounding for religious principles as well as science. Using philosophy, he wanted to cultivate a solid foundation for all his beliefs. Descartes motivates his argument that we should doubt everything in the first Meditation by claiming that our senses deceive us, dreams are muddled with being awake, and that there could be a God misleading us about the things we take as basic common sense.
Descartes begins …show more content…
Descartes’ voice of skepticism argues that “I can never distinguish, by reliable signs, being awake from being asleep...this feeling of confusion [confirms that I am asleep]” (19). He recalls sitting by a fire in his room, feeling the heat of the fire on his body, even though it is not really there. Although he is dreaming, the sensation is almost identical to the sensation while awake; thus, there cannot be a precise line drawn between the two. The voice of common sense draws that conclusion from this that “considerations that...involve an examination of composite things are indeed doubtful [physics, astronomy]...and other such disciplines...not concerned with whether or not they exist in nature [geometry], contain something that is certain and beyond doubt” (20). Simply, we can know the properties of objects and how they interact, even if we do not know whether the object itself exists first. We can know that a table forms a 90 degree angle with the floor, even if we do not know if the table exists at all. The composite subjects involve multiple components, making it difficult to distinguish between what is true and what is not. However, with simple subjects that do not ask of the existence of an object in nature, Descartes argues that they are indubitable because “whether I am awake or asleep, two and three added together make five and a quadrilateral figure has no more than four sides”
“I should begin again from the most basic foundations if I ever wished to establish anything firm and durable in the sciences...I will devote myself...to this general overturning of my beliefs (18). In Descartes’ first Meditation, “Things which can be called into doubt”, Descartes aimed to find grounding for religious principles as well as science. Using philosophy, he wanted to cultivate a solid foundation for all his beliefs. Descartes motivates his argument that we should doubt everything in the first Meditation by claiming that our senses deceive us, dreams are muddled with being awake, and that there could be a God misleading us about the things we take as basic common sense.
Descartes begins …show more content…
Descartes’ voice of skepticism argues that “I can never distinguish, by reliable signs, being awake from being asleep...this feeling of confusion [confirms that I am asleep]” (19). He recalls sitting by a fire in his room, feeling the heat of the fire on his body, even though it is not really there. Although he is dreaming, the sensation is almost identical to the sensation while awake; thus, there cannot be a precise line drawn between the two. The voice of common sense draws that conclusion from this that “considerations that...involve an examination of composite things are indeed doubtful [physics, astronomy]...and other such disciplines...not concerned with whether or not they exist in nature [geometry], contain something that is certain and beyond doubt” (20). Simply, we can know the properties of objects and how they interact, even if we do not know whether the object itself exists first. We can know that a table forms a 90 degree angle with the floor, even if we do not know if the table exists at all. The composite subjects involve multiple components, making it difficult to distinguish between what is true and what is not. However, with simple subjects that do not ask of the existence of an object in nature, Descartes argues that they are indubitable because “whether I am awake or asleep, two and three added together make five and a quadrilateral figure has no more than four sides”