Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 6

Philosophy - Essay Examplee worry that this world might too be a dream was resplendently expressed by the French philosopher Rene Descartes in the seventeenth century in his Meditations. In fact, he specifically sought to doubt whatever could be doubted in order to lay the foundations for true knowledge through reasoning. After pointing out what happens during sleep, he performs his pipe dream argument when he writes, In dwelling c arefully on this reflection, I see so manifestly that there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep that I am lost in astonishment. And my astonishment is such that it is almost capable of persuading me that I now dream (Descartes, 2009 12). Put simply, the reasoning of his argument is that perceptions during both states are similar, and given that there are no ways to distinguish between them, therefore this raises the possibility that even during waking one may be dreaming such that the perceptions during waking may turn out to be false as in dreams. An outline of this argument is presented below.Thus, Descartes doubts both being presently energize and being ever awake. He refers to the particulars (i.e. what we do) during sleep as false delusions, and the things represented to us in dreams, as painted representations which can only have been create as the counterparts of something real and true (ibid). Incidentally, this shows that the non-dream world does have a greater originality than the dream world because what is painted in dreams is not created ex nihilo, but he continues to suggest that all the thoughts he has are no more true than the phantasies of his dreams (ibid 49).Furthermore, Descartes obsessively skeptical approach is rather dubious because in places, it does not make sense, and some of his ideas like the demon are hypothetical. Moreover, it is ironic that after much doubting and casting aside the trustworthiness of the senses, he never once doubts his possess