Descartes – Meditation I

        Descartes first attack is on the human senses and how they are deceiving.  He moves deeper and beyond sense immediately and the idea of “setting”.  “I am sitting here next to the fire, wearing my winter dressing gown, that I am holding this sheet of paper in my hands…But on what grounds could one deny that these hands and this entire body are mine?”(351).  This method of thinking shows that Descartes is looking to a higher power in which to derive why what he can see, feel, and understand is real or simply imagination.  He next enters into conversation about the reality of dreams.  He describes how he can watch his hands move and he can read while he is awake and in response says, “Such things would not be so distinct for someone who is asleep”(351).  Descartes then leads into conversation about assuming life is a dream and that everything we “sense” is imagination.  In his next argument, he talks of how certain things that make so much sense really make none and how others that carry no relevance prove themselves outright.

“Physics, astronomy, medicine and all other disciplines that are dependent upon the consideration of composite things are doubtful, and that, on the other hand, arithmetic, geometry and other such disciplines, which treat of nothing but the simplest and most general things and which are indifferent as to whether these things do or do not in fact exist, contain something certain and indubitable”(352).            

Some things just make sense while others, as normal and real as they might seem, have no proof to them.  Descartes goes on to talk about God and whether or not he is real, then goes with the assumption that he is not and that life is created through fate and chain of events.  After this, he confirms with himself that everything that is real is actually in his mind and dreams.