Descartes First Three Meditations And Explain How...

In this essay, I will go over Descartes’ first three meditations and explain how Descartes discovers the foundation of knowledge, I will go over his problems with sensory knowledge, I will evaluate his claims, and I will present my objection to them. Descartes is very well known as the father of skepticism, which is very ironic, considering his main goal was to make a fool proof reason to believe in the existence of God. He wanted to make a case so strong, that if any atheist were to read his meditations, they would immediately believe in God. Little did he know, his readings actually caused much more doubt than certainty, and actually moved many people away from Christianity. This is because he uses doubt as the foundation of knowledge. When Descartes begins in his first meditation, he shows doubt in the things that most of us have never even considered to be inaccurate information. For example, he points out the fact that we could very well be asleep at this exact moment. He says that though it may seem like real life, it could easily be the most vivid dream we have ever experienced. After that he goes on to explain that not only may right now be a dream, but everything we have ever conceived to be real life may be a dream as well. He practically says that for all we know, we could have hit our heads and gone into a coma when we were small children and never even realized it. Or maybe we are already dead and we are reliving our lives in a dream. Descartes also makes usShow MoreRelatedEssay on descartes1223 Words   |  5 Pages Descartes ignored all he believed to be true. He believed that if any belief can be doubted it is not certain, making it unusable as a foundation. Descartes jettisons any information, know ledge, or truths that are based on his senses. He applied the â€Å"Dream Argument,† (19) where he stated that based on the senses alone, there is no definite way of proving that you are dreaming or awake. Therefore, any truths based upon the senses are unreliable and doubtful. Descartes turned to why and how his sensesRead More How Descartes Tries to Extricate Himself from the Skeptical Doubts He Has Raised4647 Words   |  19 PagesHow Descartes Tries to Extricate Himself from the Skeptical Doubts He Has Raised [All page references and quotations from the Meditations are taken from the 1995 Everyman edition] In the Meditations, Descartes embarks upon what Bernard Williams has called the project of Pure Enquiry to discover certain, indubitable foundations for knowledge. By subjecting everything to doubt Descartes hoped to discover whatever was immune to it. 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