Pholosophy Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pholosophy Questions - Essay ExampleThe rest of the personality is developed by the society. In order to be flexible, individuals must enquiry their views and beliefs. This doubt holds critical importance in the journey to discover the truth. It may lead an individual into impasses and dilemmas initially but eventually doubt leads to a point that does not leave any more room for doubt. This elimination of doubt creates a sense of irrefutable authenticity in the beliefs and views of an individual. The microscope stage of doubt indicateed by Descartes first meditations is astounding. Descartes takes the measure of doubt to a whole new level which even involves doubting ones innate senses. He presents arguments and situations that clarify the need for such doubts. This also questions the man of oneself, which he mentions as I (Williams, Descartes & Cottingham, 1996). The diversity of opinions in the world has created so much room for error. If everyone intemperately believes that h is/her views be qualified, then who is right and who is wrong. Surely there has to be one path towards the truth therefore doubting all of the opinions including ones birth is necessary to filter out the real truth. The fact that Descartes takes the degree of doubt to another level stems from his idea to even doubt ones raw material senses of perception upon which all knowledge is based. The idea that senses of perception can deceive an individual does not cross logic since they sop up deceived people in the past. Our senses have deceived us in matters of observation of minute and distant objects. This is a reasonable claim to support the argument of doubting our senses. However, Descartes cannot reject the authentic of a accredited set of basic knowledge such geometry and arithmetic. The first argument presented by Descartes in favor of doubting ones senses relates to dreams. Dreams feel real until we atomic number 18 woken up from them so who is to decide if the present situ ation is not a dream but in fact human race. Being asleep and awake atomic number 18 two different things so it is possible that one of these states is really the reality but what if both these states are actually a part of an unrealized dream. If the present is not a reality but actually a dream then the mind and body do not exist in reality they are mere illusions. This is the argument upon which Descartes doubts the authenticity of his senses However, Rene further presents another side of the picture by drawing an analogy from a painting. Whatever a panther paints on the canvas comes from what he/she observes around him. Even if the painter paints something completely out of this world, he/she still uses the colors that are around him thereby testifying the existence of these colors and objects in the painting. Similarly dreams can be imagined as our canvas and whatever we see in them is a reflection of the things that we observe while we are awake. No matter how irrational t he dreams may be, they are still influenced by the reality as we perceive it. So what we see in dreams must actually exist, however, the dreams may not be entirely based on the reality but perhaps carry only the nuance of reality. This argument basically authority that dreams do not testify the existence of the body and all its senses, in fact it testifies to the existence of basic knowledge such as geometry and arithmetic, which cannot be doubted. all(prenominal) other knowledge such as physics and astronomy are based on them. The concepts presented in these