Was Descartes's Skepticism Influenced By His Faith?
Ana Clara Martins
Modern World History (Period C)
Ms. Archer
12 February 2014
Was Descartes’ skepticism influenced by his faith?
“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things” (Descartes, goodreads). René Descartes, often described as the “Father of Modern Philosophy”, was born in a time where philosophy and science were advancing at an unbelievable rate. The revolutionizing philosopher was fascinated by how much skepticism influenced a rapid progress in society, and was eager to find an indubitable truth that could survive any and all skeptical challenges. In order to rid science of constant and disturbing skepticism, he planned to find an …show more content…
This resulted in an overwhelming confusion where truth was hidden behind weakly formed concepts. Primarily, he sought to avoid these issues through geometry, as he trusted the propositions that made up a geometrical theorem were not exposed to doubt. This ultimately meant that anything deriving from these propositions would also be unexposed to doubt and therefore absolute certainties. Yet this argument was completely torn apart by radical skepticism, leading him to write the First Meditation, where he attempts to show the possibility of knowledge even when it derives from the most skeptic ideas. The first idea introduced in his work is one that claims false all of our sensory knowledge. Descartes argues that most of his dreams have extremely realistic components and therefore sensory knowledge can come from real sensations as well as false ones that are found in dreams. Since there is no way of differentiating these sensations, every belief that is based on them can be doubted. However, this is not valid for mathematical beliefs, as “for whether [he is] awake or dreaming, it remains true that two and three make five, and that a square has but four sides” (Descartes, oregonstate). Eventually, Descartes starts to wonder whether God could deceive him by making him believe in false …show more content…
Since he had previously claimed false all beliefs achieved through sensory, he now questioned whether or not this affected the concept of his own existence. In the Second Meditation he affirms: “If I convinced myself that my beliefs are false, then surely there must be an “I” that was convinced” (Descartes, phylosophypages). Moreover, he realized that he could only be fooled by a malignant demon, even regarding his existence, if he in fact existed. This leads him to the finding of his first absolute certainty: “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes, goodreads). This indubitable truth of “I exist” could effectively serve as the axiom from which his method could be built upon. He now wanted to expand his hopes for human knowledge by proving the existence of God, and therefore being certain of something other than his own
Modern World History (Period C)
Ms. Archer
12 February 2014
Was Descartes’ skepticism influenced by his faith?
“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things” (Descartes, goodreads). René Descartes, often described as the “Father of Modern Philosophy”, was born in a time where philosophy and science were advancing at an unbelievable rate. The revolutionizing philosopher was fascinated by how much skepticism influenced a rapid progress in society, and was eager to find an indubitable truth that could survive any and all skeptical challenges. In order to rid science of constant and disturbing skepticism, he planned to find an …show more content…
This resulted in an overwhelming confusion where truth was hidden behind weakly formed concepts. Primarily, he sought to avoid these issues through geometry, as he trusted the propositions that made up a geometrical theorem were not exposed to doubt. This ultimately meant that anything deriving from these propositions would also be unexposed to doubt and therefore absolute certainties. Yet this argument was completely torn apart by radical skepticism, leading him to write the First Meditation, where he attempts to show the possibility of knowledge even when it derives from the most skeptic ideas. The first idea introduced in his work is one that claims false all of our sensory knowledge. Descartes argues that most of his dreams have extremely realistic components and therefore sensory knowledge can come from real sensations as well as false ones that are found in dreams. Since there is no way of differentiating these sensations, every belief that is based on them can be doubted. However, this is not valid for mathematical beliefs, as “for whether [he is] awake or dreaming, it remains true that two and three make five, and that a square has but four sides” (Descartes, oregonstate). Eventually, Descartes starts to wonder whether God could deceive him by making him believe in false …show more content…
Since he had previously claimed false all beliefs achieved through sensory, he now questioned whether or not this affected the concept of his own existence. In the Second Meditation he affirms: “If I convinced myself that my beliefs are false, then surely there must be an “I” that was convinced” (Descartes, phylosophypages). Moreover, he realized that he could only be fooled by a malignant demon, even regarding his existence, if he in fact existed. This leads him to the finding of his first absolute certainty: “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes, goodreads). This indubitable truth of “I exist” could effectively serve as the axiom from which his method could be built upon. He now wanted to expand his hopes for human knowledge by proving the existence of God, and therefore being certain of something other than his own