Descartes 'Meditations On First Philosophy'

In Meditations on First Philosophy/Meditation 1 Descartes insists that we might not have any surety in our knowledge. He concludes that reality as we know it is false, and we are ultimately deceived. This is interesting because there is no way to prove we can determine whether this is true or false logic. The claim has no intent on changing our daily actions, our moral beliefs, or our role in the universe, but is intended to bring us into open-mindedness. If we allow ourselves to accept the plausibility of our true being in reality, then we surely have the mindset that is driven toward enlightenment. Without this mindset we are stuck in our ignorant ways, conforming to societies comfortable and lazy methods on the search for truth. Descartes …show more content…
It’s as simple as that. No the magician did not change the penny into a dove. Descartes writes about how all he knows of reality is what his senses tell him is reality “All that I have, up to this moment, accepted as possessed of the highest truth and certainty, I received either from or through the senses.”. If our senses can easily be fooled by magic, then how much more are we deceived in our perceptions of reality? To be entirely certain in our senses we would have to reject the premise of deception. This is problematic because we know we our senses are often times wrong. Therefore we should determine the degree of deception we live …show more content…
Some say College Mathematics is the only class you can get a one hundred percent in because you deal with absolute true statements. If I were to evaluate the half of eight, the result would be four. Is this an undeniably true statement? Descartes does not believe so. He says “Let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars—namely, the opening of the eyes…are merely illusions” and “Arithmetic, Geometry, and the other sciences of the same class… and scarcely inquire whether or not these are really existent, contain somewhat that is certain and indubitable: for whether I am awake or dreaming”. What he means by saying this is just like we could dream about mathematics, and to dream is to create a false reality, we may consider sciences like mathematics to be false. This concept depends on if we are living in one big dream. A dream we are placed in by a deity. We don’t consider our awaken state to be false, but we do however consider our dreams to be false. That’s because we only know our awaken state to be the highest degree of reality. Descartes considers we are not in a true reality because God created us, and created what we view as reality. He says “the belief that there is a
God who is all powerful, and who created me, such as I am, has, for a long time, obtained steady possession of my mind.”. So what kind of God did this to us, and why is it important to evaluate