Outline, examine and evaluate the arguments used by Descartes in the First Meditation.
Descartes" project in Meditations is "to demolish everything completely and start again from the foundations" in order to establish which of his beliefs he can know are true. He realises "how many things [he] had accepted as true in [his] childhood, and how doubtful were the things that [he] subsequently built on them". Descartes believes it is necessary to "overturn" one's beliefs "once in a lifetime" through a process of doubt; he regards the need to undermine the "foundations" of his beliefs and this strategy of doubt as "straightforwardly and obviously" the rational course to assume in order to discover the truth. However, it has been questioned just how "necessary", "straightforward" or "obvious" this overturning is. Bernard Williams argues that "we constantly want the truth about various matters, but hardly ever demand the indubitable". It appears rather overdramatic and unnecessary to insist on the absolute certainty of all things. However, Descartes" use of "once in a lifetime" suggests that he is merely curious; he is not searching for the indubitable in the sense in which we search for the truth in everyday life, but merely carrying out a thought experiment. Descartes himself admits in the preface to the Meditations that his strategy appears dramatic but claims that "although the usefulness of such extensive doubt is not apparent at first sight, its greatest benefit lies in freeing us from all our preconceived opinions": it allows us to suspend judgement for the purpose of argument. He is not asserting, as some critics have held, that that which is doubtful is false; an assertion that would be, as Descartes points out, "no less dogmatic than one's usual state of mind, and considerably less reasonable". The method of doubt enables Descartes - and the reader - to examine the foundations upon which our beliefs in general depend.
