Anam Khan                Theory of knowledge

Analyse and discuss Descartes’ cogito

Descartes was brought up to believe in many of the certainties of the medieval world and the bible. Over time, however, many of these certainties he was being taught were being questioned and replaced by science or reason – rationalism. Descartes was a famous scientist and philosopher in his day; who was the origin of his sceptical nature. He grew to become uncertain about all his existing beliefs, and was motivated to search for secure certainties upon which to ground science.

Descartes hoped to find some true belief amongst the false ones, which stem from our everyday belief system – naïve or common-sense realism.  

This was Descartes’ quest, which was achieved only after he employed his famous ‘method of doubt’, a radical kind of global scepticism. This method of doubt tried to suspend judgment about all the things he previously took for granted. In effect, everything that could possibly be doubted was treated as false for the sake of argument. If after following this method he arrived at some thing which could not be doubted, i.e. something which was indubitable, then he would have reached a point of absolute certainty. Descartes therefore writes that; “if I can find any grounds for doubt at all, this will be enough to justify my rejecting the whole edifice”. This argument appeared in Descartes first meditation, and was the basis, along with rationalism, of his epistemology (theory of knowledge).

In Descartes’ first wave of doubt, he argues that much of his knowledge is based on the senses, or what he has empirically observed; via his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and feeling. As Descartes questions the reliability of the senses, he realises that they are indeed capable of misleading us, and have been undependable on several occasions, “It is prudent never to trust entirely those who have once deceived us”.

He points to the common experience of seeing an object in the distance, but once closer, the object can be shown to be completely different. However Descartes rejects his ‘once a deceiver, always a deceiver’ theory, as he doesn’t believe that ‘something’ which is very far away (so you can barley see it), deceives your senses a couple of times, will always be responsible for your deception. So Descartes goes on to say this is not reason enough to never trust the senses completely and for them to always be doubted or thought of as uncertain. For, he asks, how is it possible for us to doubt we are where we are at this very moment? That I am not writing this philosophy essay at 11:00 pm, the night before it is to be handed in; and in fact my senses are deceiving me? Descartes uses his own example of sitting by the fire,

Join now!

“It is manifestly impossible to doubt… that I am in this place, seated by the fire, clothed in a winter dressing-gown…”

Due to this less radical first wave of doubt Descartes turns to a different argument of what is true knowledge, and what has the potential to be doubted.

So, Descartes turns to dreams, which he feels are a stronger protest to the certainties of senses. Could it be, he asks, that all our experience is part of a dream? How can we tell waking life from dreaming? It is possible that the objects we perceive as real ...

This is a preview of the whole essay