Descartes begins his Meditations with a discussion of doubt, believing it to be the tool by which knowledge can be verified. Betrayed by “the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood (Descartes, 12),” the philosopher seeks a decisive mode of authentication, one that will be able to clearly and definitively divide the true from the false. He promptly discounts his senses as a viable test of validity – this rejection of the evidence his senses present to him leads him to doubt the reality he inhabits.
[...] IV: Modern Objections to the Dream Argument In a more modern objection to his argument refers to his use of doubt as a method of seeking the truth. He assumes that one may only express doubt once he does not take into account second-guessing his initial skepticism. Consistently speaking, if Descartes wishes to prove his thought experiment, he would further question his lack of conviction, doubting his doubt. This would render his argument null and void. Ronald Suter writes, know that Descartes' initial doubt was not so hyperbolical as I am claiming it should have been. [...]
[...] This seems in direct opposition to his argument that senses deceive (Descartes, If one follows his logic, then perception is based on the senses, and everything that one clearly perceives is true, then it follows that everything that one senses is true. In effect, Descartes has managed to disprove his own theory. Ronald Suter follows a similar vein of thought in his treatise Dream Argument,” which follows another inconsistency in Descartes logic. He wonders at the superficiality of Descartes' dream argument, particularly in his use of doubt. [...]
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