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Descartes

 

            Descartes set out to find and isolate in his mind those things which he could doubt even to the tiniest degree. The purpose of this would seem to be to discover truths which cannot be doubted in any way. He wishes to gain true knowledge and his method of doubt will apparently clear his mind of any slight doubts and leave him only with knowledge which is indubitable and clearly true. He seems to want to bring a new rigour to his thinking. Another possible purpose of the method of doubt is to help his later arguments about God and the distinction between the body and the soul. His method of doubt leads him to rely only on his mind, at least for the duration of the Meditations, and in this sense shows how the mind and body are distinct. He also points out that, if you start from falsehoods, you cannot proceed to truths and so, if the basis of your thought is not correct everything you think will be wrong. In this sense Descartes is a foundationalist as he seeks to question even his most basic opinions and start again from the beginning. .
             One of the main things that Descartes doubts is the senses, although he does not say that we should now forever ignore the senses, but rather just suspend judgement on them. He wishes to challenge all of our preconceived opinions, based on the senses. He realises that all of his knowledge is based on the senses but that these senses have often deceived him. This leads to the conclusion that the senses cannot be trusted. He even brings into doubt our beliefs of the existence of our own bodies, using the example of dreams to show that we sometimes think we are awake when we are actually asleep. Here I can see a problem in his thought. It is true that your mind may be tricked into thinking that you are dreaming. However, this involves the mind alone being tricked, not the senses. If you are asleep and think you are awake, you are only seeing a mental picture.


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