The Dream Argument as a Postulation by Descartes - Essay Example

Descartes “dream argument” Rene Descartes was a philosopher, and as such, sought to establish the existence, cause andeffect of things, ideas and beliefs, as the human faculty perceives. In his approach, he diverges from the usual methodologies of evaluating the topics and chooses to plunge into the foundation by evaluating the sense perception and accuracy of the information and ideas that people possess. In the very several arguments that he developed for mediation, the dream argument features first and thus prominently in the rest of his arguments. He presents the dream argument, which he creates the hypothesis that the senses that people trust and rely for inferring the accuracy of ideas are not trustworthy. Thus, the dream argument seeks to establish that, inference of the accuracy of information is not entirely a decision that humans can rely on the senses, rather, it is essential to apply rigorous testing to determine their authenticity. The dream argument is a postulation by Descartes. He argues that the act of dreaming is a preliminary evidence of the possibility that the senses that people rely on to make a distinction between reality and illusions are not trustworthy. He further seeks to show that, there is the need for further evaluation of the senses and their perceptions to establish the facts of reality. In the usual life, people dream as they sleep (Descartes 9). However, in these dreams, the people perceive and feel things as though they are real. The people, while in the dream, do not have the knowledge that they are dreaming, they only come to realize they were dreaming when they wake. Thus, this then raises the basis of the dream argument as Descartes presents it, that, there is the possibility that people are constantly dreaming and never wake into reality. Moreover, there is a possibility that people cannot ascertain whether they are in the dream or awake in their engagements. In this first meditation, he presents what is in doubt, opening the mediation with several falsehoods that believed in his life and further faulting of the knowledge that he built on those falsehoods. The mediator sweeps all his former knowledge away, sits himself and decides to build up his knowledge. However, as he realizes from so doing, he establishes that, all the things that he learned in the past came through his senses. He continues further to doubt the foundations of all opinions that he founded on his senses, acknowledging that the senses can deceive. To illustrate his argument, Descartes presents the dream argument using the illustration that, in a dream, he can feel the warmth of fire, which he confirms that it also happens in his waking life (Descartes 14). Thus, his feeling of the fire both in a dream and in awake shows that, he cannot use it to tell when he is awake or dreaming. From this illustration, Descartes draws his evidence that the dream presents doubt of the accuracy of information that people gather through the senses. He further illustrates that, in a dream, he perceives small and far way objects as sturdy just as when he is awake. He further states that, insane people also perceive the deception as they may view such far and small objects as though they exist near him. He further adds that, when he is awake, he can perceive real objects just as he senses them when awake (Descartes 19). Therefore, though his present senses may be in the dream, they originate from the experiences of the person while awake as it happens in paintings. He further points that, the instance where the painter draws a mermaid; it is a creation from real things comprising of a woman and a fish. Thus, the dream is a representation of things that people perceive from real things and experiences. This strengthens his argument in this first mediation that, the senses can deceive and the person may be dreaming and perceive as though they are awake. He argues that, people can doubt all composite perceptions from their senses, but not the components constituting those composite things, such as shape, size and time. However, he concludes this meditation by the realization that he cannot doubt establishments and senses based on arithmetic and geometry. Thus, in view of the first meditation, Descartes establishes the responses that, it is difficult to establish the distinction between dream and the waking experience. Additionally, he states the possibility that, he could be dreaming in that meditation, and that his perceptions are false. Therefore, he establishes an increment in the scope of the doubt in the sixth mediation. In the sixth mediation, he starts by restating that, matter does exist (Descartes 45). Thus, he reintroduces the idea of doubt to show the existence of matter from the imagination of the same. In this meditation, he presents the aspects of an imagination and pure intellection. The imagination is similar to what he presents as the dream in the first mediation while the pure intellection is the waking experience. In the argument, he presents various imaginations, which then he goes forward to doubt. The mediator questions the argument using the illustrations of goodness and the things that can harm the person. He argues that, the nature of the self causes the person to desire that which will harm him. In response to this argument, he indicates that, the senses often give the correct inference concerning matters of the health of a person. He further adds that, the senses can complement each other, acting as check mechanisms for each other. For instance, the senses of touch may infer heat while the senses of sight infer the burning happening, thus, this counter checking of the senses then shows that, imagination and pure intellection have a connection. Additionally, he adds to his response in the sixth meditation that, what the experiences and evidence of information learned from the senses and stored in the memory is useful in the process of making the conclusion over the subject in doubt. Additionally, in Descartes conclusion, he closes his argument by giving the accounts for which the senses are and can go wrong. This is his basis for the first meditation, and he brings it in the sixth meditation to show the extent to which the intellect and imagination are applicable in understanding the nature of the body and its relation and correlation with the mind and God (Descartes 49). In his findings, he establishes that, the senses give the people accurate clues of how the world around them is like. However, he emphasizes that senses could be wrong; thus, they should not be a tool for pursuing the truth. Instead, the intellect helps to make judgments concerning the truth and falsehoods. Thus, the task of establishing and pursuing the truth on the nature of the body and its surrounding belongs to the intellect. In view of the response in the sixth meditation, it is essential first to establish the distinction between sensory and intellectual perception. The perception of sensory uses imagination, while that of intellectual uses actual understanding. For instance, the illustration using a thousand-sided figure, it clearly leads to the conclusion that, imagination only present various visually obscure and confused representations of the geometric figures. Additionally, the intellectual perception clearly aides to establish the sides of the geometric figure in view, despite having as many sides. Similarly, from this illustration, that we can draw the finding that, the intellect grasps all the primary qualities and representations of the body in their extended relations. To the contrary, the imagination does not allow us to establish the distinction between the primary and secondary qualities of the body. For instance, a person cannot solely think of the color red, without visualizing the appearance of red first (Descartes 51). Thus, in this context, I do not think that the response that the meditation gives is satisfactory. In conclusion, as the thesis of the dream argument by Descartes states, the first meditation pursues his postulate of the dream and illustrates it factitively. He shows several factors that indicate the doubt that senses do not entirely distinguish the dream and waking experiences. Additionally, in the sixth mediation, he introduces the aspect of imagination and intellectualism to ground his postulate further on the ability of senses in making judgments. I find his argument as accurate in holding that senses can be wrong. Additionally, the intellect, which is from the basis of the knowledge gained and stored in memory, is useful in making judgments on the truth and falsehoods. Work cited Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy. Radford, Va: Wilder Publications, LLC, 2008. Print. Read More