The Nature of Descartes' Program of Radical Doubt and the Reason He Engages in This Program - Essay Example

As it is however, no significant degree of being radical may be detected, yet for the nature of doubt which Descartes presented, the philosophically radical part of his program is perceived on casting doubt upon ‘senses’ which has frequently been neglected. At this stage, he had come to express hence -- “All that I have, up to this moment, accepted as possessed of the highest truth and certainty, I received either from or through the senses. I observed, however, that these sometimes misled us; and it is the part of prudence not to place absolute confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.

” What the Dream Hypothesis and the Evil Deceiver Hypothesis are Supposed to Cast Doubt Upon In generating the dream hypothesis to show that sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind, Descartes went about designing his famous ‘dream’ argument by casting doubt on the truth of all sense perception and this would only take place if while dreaming, one first acknowledges the impression of illogical products as real where a dreaming person may have difficulty differentiating between the dream and reality.

Descartes says “How often has it happened to me that in the night I dreamt that I found myself in this particular place, that I was dressed and seated near the fire, whilst in reality I was lying undressed in bed!” By this concept, I may believe even now that I am dreaming and this is not my body; that I am not writing this paper for philosophy but I am actually in a painting workshop. This dream hypothesis would consequently nullify the beliefs based on internal sense; for if you are dreaming then what you believe to be your awareness of self is truly false.

Dreams possess negligible reason while life experience is orderly and controlled. Nevertheless, it is unreliable to evaluate coherences between dreams and reality. Dreams at times are incoherent and sometimes they appear to be real and beliefs derived from internal senses cannot be true due to the possibility that one may be dreaming. Descartes further argues that perhaps the only true beliefs come from intellect, or clear and distinct ideas. Despite the falsity of internal senses based on dreams, dreams are based on reality.

Whether this hand is real or dreamed, it is my hand, and it exists somewhere. What if all he believes to be true, is being planted by some sort of intelligence force, such as an ‘evil demon’? When Descartes exemplifies with an inquiry “How do I know I am not deceived every time that I add two and three, or count the sides of a square?” perhaps he is being deceived in these fundamental beliefs that for instance through mathematics and the other