Rene Descartes prefers meditation over the scholastic method of debate popular at the time because it allows him to get insights that the Question-Responded (Q&A) structure does not qualify. Furthermore, one can tell that a dream inspired him during his euphoric moments, and he embarks on these meditations as a spiritual endeavor. He takes the risk of methodic doubt because, to reach certainty, one must be skeptical of faulty assumptions. Descartes outlines the several potential causes of deceit in meditation. One of them is the identification of preconceptions instilled in children throughout their early years.
The study of philosophy was tarnished throughout the Middle Ages by relying on assumptions disproved by scientific revolutionaries such as Copernicus and Galileo Galilee. As a result, Descartes aspires to apply the discipline of science and mathematics to philosophy, uncovering false assumptions. The beginning point of certainty is referred to as systematic doubt. This meticulous skepticism sets the tone for the rest of Descartes’ writings. He responds to metaphysical problems, allowing others to dismiss the actual Aristotelian physical reality as wrong or unworkable. This is why, historically, Descartes’s physics writings were not published immediately away.
The dream argument may be found in the early meditations, demonstrating the potential for mistakes. Much has been said regarding whether or not dreaming ideas are self-contradictory. Descartes’s approach is based only on the hypothesis that humans distinguish between dreaming and waking states. He makes the crucial distinction between what people think when they are awake and dreaming. Descartes states that, “it is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all perception are false” (Kolak and Martin 56). His approach avoids the accusation of self-refutation since it is consistent with the conclusion that one cannot consistently tell the difference between dreams and waking.
The official viewpoint of Descartes is that the evil genius doubt is only one of several theories that might inspire hyperbolic doubt in general. His doubting approach is an excellent place to start while learning, as it is vital to remove preconceptions. Descartes also utilizes methodic doubt to criticize skeptics in the latter half of the Meditations on First Philosophy. To him, doubt ultimately leads to assurance about a thinking creature that already exists. Descartes addresses this by claiming that God exists as a guarantee and that he will not be deceived when dreaming, as dreams have no continuity.
Descartes goes through the process of proving that corporeal objects do exist. He begins his argument by stating that individuals can conceive of themselves without the capabilities, and they have the ability of perception and imagination. Descartes states, “suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions” (Kolak and Martin 98). However, a person cannot develop their abilities without intellectual knowledge. Moreover, he states that talents or faculties are capacities of a thinking substance. He claims that one has other body movement and locomotion skills, which cannot coexist independently as they are components of the human essence. He argues all these theories to provide the groundwork for the remainder of his argument because it aligns with his Dualism ideology.
The Second Meditation’s renowned wax thought experiment is designed to provide a method for digging out what is inherent. The thought experiment claims to assist the meditator in achieving a pure mental examination, allowing him to grasp the intrinsic concept of the body more readily. This repository contains concepts from mathematics, logic, and metaphysics. Surprisingly, Descartes believes that even people’s sensory perceptions have inherent substance. According to his interpretation of modern mechanical physics, Bodies have no genuine attributes such as a person’s sensory conceptions of colors, sounds, and tastes, meaning that the substance of such thoughts comes from the mind itself. According to one probable interpretation, Descartes’ official philosophy is that concepts are intrinsic because their content originates only from the nature of the mind rather than from sensory experience.
Work Cited
Kolak Daniel and Raymond Martin. The Experience of Philosophy. 6th ed., Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 1-712.