“I think, therefore I am.” This was French philosopher Rene Descartes’ famous quote. Descartes wanted to make it known that the human senses COULD be deceived, using many various arguments. One of his well known ones is his dream argument. He describes sitting by a fire in his room during the dream and being able to feel the fire- even though in reality there was no fire, and therefore no sensation of fire. He then goes on to say that if his senses cannot distinguish between dream and reality, then how can he be sure of the feeling of warmth when he is awake?
Descartes even suggested not even knowing what he was- saying that if the senses could be misled, how did he know that he wasn’t being controlled by an evil being bent on deceiving him? He said that it was fully possible that he was just a brain being fed illusions and ideas by another entity. I agree with his theorization here- I sometimes wonder if the world is some larger beings’ playmat.
However, Descartes only used these arguments as examples- he didn’t expect anyone to believe them, he just wanted to get across that the senses CAN be deceived. The British empiricists did not like Descartes’ arguments on the senses for they believed that most knowledge was obtained through the senses. Descartes decided that to prove reality to himself, he would test things before believing them- coming up with his own conclusions. However, in his acts of reconstruction, he figured that taking time over every little idea would be a waste of time, and so tackled the biggest problem: the senses.
While Descartes did not trust the senses, he DID believe that honest facts could be determined a different way- through science. He believed that by breaking down each problem into its simplest parts, he could remove all unreliable sense perceptions and solve the problem by using reason instead. What gets me is, WHY, out of ALL THINGS, would Descartes choose science and reason over the senses? Science and reason are man made structures- of COURSE they can be deceived, much more so than your God-given senses!
Descartes’ famous quote, “I think, therefore I am,” comes from one of his arguments- that just because he can think, it proves human existence. There must be an ‘I’ to do the thinking- therefore proving he is SOMETHING. While this does not prove that he has hands, hair, or any other type of body, it clarifies that he has a brain and has the power to use reason and have his own ideas.
Descartes also believed that everyone is born with reason. He also believed that by using common logic in all of his arguments and books that anyone could understand and agree with him. He often wrote his books in Latin, for scholars, but would sometimes write in his native French language, so even people with less education could read his works.
No comments:
Post a Comment