Skeptical argument of Descartes
Many individuals have different ideas about how the world operates. Each individual would like to believe that their ideas about how the world runs are true. The presence of philosophy in the daily lives of humans is to help them understand the concept of knowledge. Grasping knowledge of how the universe runs, helps individuals different between convictions of scientists and those from cult societies. Philosophy helps get the right avenues of gaining knowledge and what it really means to know something. In this essay, we will analyze skeptical arguments from Descartes and his proposals on what guarantees knowledge. Descartes is an individual known for his radical ideas and great arguments, no one would dare argue with him without any knowledge of the idea. Descartes’s arguments are based on illusion, insufficient coherence and, deception.
During the 17th century, a lot of scientific progress was witnessed which saw the formation of communities that defined what constituted science. What constituted science was based on empirical affirmation. Descartes, however, had other ideas, he believed that scientific information gained from senses was very unreliable because he associated senses with unreliability. Descartes was concerned with finding a point of certainty that would help explain the scientific ideas. Descartes used mathematics to validate scientific thoughts because he believed that mathematics carried some truths that were hard to dispute and it is mathematics that was going to enable individuals to make sense of the world.
In Descartes’s argument, senses are hard to be trusted because his objective was to reach a point of certainty. To ensure certainty Descartes in his own words “I will . . . apply myself earnestly and openly to the general destruction of my former opinions.” All the former opinions that had even the slightest doubts were put away. Descartes made a decision to consider everything until he proved them wrong. In order to be certain, during his first meditation, he asks individuals to assume that they were asleep and that the information they were processing was from their dreams. Descartes argues that all the consciousness that individuals are blessed with could be a dream state which makes him doubt senses.
In his second meditation, after he had found that human beings are not deceptive, he decides to look for something outside the world of sensory information so as to find certainty. Ind doing so Descartes discovers that he exists. According to his own statement “I am, I exist….” By Descartes thinking that he exists, nothing can convince him otherwise that he is nothing. Many individuals like Norman Malcolm and O.K. Bouwsma, have tried to challenge Descartes arguments on several occasions.
Mathematical abilities that individuals possess is the gift of God. God would not allow humans to be deceived making mathematical conclusions a point where the truth lies. If this argument is to be believed then the idea of mathematics would surely prove Descartes’s idea towards the point of certainty. God’s existence cannot be proven though, and that made Descartes propose another possibility. Descartes asks individuals to imagine the possibility that an evil genius exists whose only intentions are to mislead people. Descartes argues that all the physical things that are existing in the world have to be viewed as deception because all the information related to senses like colors, size and, shapes are fed to people by the evil genius.