Looking at Aldous Huxley's, A Brave New World.

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        After reading and studying René Descartes, I find his ideas and theories to be rather weak.  They are feeble as a result of his “cogito ergo sum” belief, the Christian audience he is writing to, and his rationalist approach to believing facts to be true.  The cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) is an unsubstantial basis for Descartes to build the rest of his beliefs upon.  The reader has no choice but to accept this base in order to move onto understanding the rest of Descartes’ ideas.  If the reader does not agree with cogito ergo sum, then he is left nowhere with Descartes.  From there, Descartes goes on to prove God to exist, and exist as one who does not deceive.  However, when I look at the audience to whom Descartes writes, it becomes evident that it is a Christian audience.  He writes to the Faculty of Sacred Theology of the University of Paris.  If he was to be taken the least bit seriously, there is no way that Descartes could have proved anything but the existence of God in accordance with the Christian perception.  In connection with the first two, a third weakness of Descartes is his rationalistic general rule that the Light of Nature makes clear to him what is true.  Descartes believes that something must be true if his mind cannot doubt it.  What his mind sees as that clear and distinct must be true.  What if he is not in control of his mind?  When looking at Aldous Huxley’s, A Brave New World, one sees a society in which there is no free thought.  Everyone is made to play a certain role.  They are programmed to not only be content in that, but thoroughly enjoy the lives they live without understanding.  The way in which Huxley’s society is portrayed seems to make perfect sense as if it could actually happen.  Because this made-up world is so plausible, it seems as if Descartes does not provide enough substance to prove that the world we believe to live in is not one like Huxley’s.

        Cogito ergo sum.  Descartes makes this claim as the most fundamental of all of his beliefs.  He “knows” that he thinks.  He makes the claim that that is all he knows.  It seems logical at first glance.  However, the possibility of deception nips at his heels.  To combat this, Descartes claims that he must exist if he can be deceived.  I believe this fundamental building block of Descartes’ meditations to be very insufficient.  Who is to say that “his” thoughts are really his?  What if thinking does not guarantee existence?  After asking these natural questions, one may not buy into Descartes’ foundation.  If cogito ergo sum is the elementary belief of Descartes, and his reader does not accept it, he may as well close the book and read no more.  Descartes presents this primary belief forcing the reader to accept it in order to continue.  It is neither fair nor acceptable as a starting point.  

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        The people in A Brave New World were made on a conveyer belt of genetic tinkering.  They were programmed from the embryo stage to carry out a specific duty.  They “exist” as human machines.  They are without original thought.  How do these people know they exist?  They do not know.  It is obvious however, that they exist, is it not?  They have lives, whether the lives have meaning to them or not.  They partake in social activities; such as sex and sports.  They have jobs.  If reflecting upon Descartes’ cogito ergo sum, there is no proof that these people exist.  They ...

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