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Comparing Descartes Views On The Difference Between Dreams And Reality

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Another marker might be that waking life has continuity which is not present in a dream. When one is dreaming one can defy the natural rules and anything can become true. However, in reality this does not occur. Therefore, we can know a difference between the dream world and reality. At first glance, this opposing argument might appear to be valid and sound. Nevertheless, is not sound. This is because the first premise that of the continuity present in waking life and not in dream is not truth. I know from my own experience and many others may know too that not all dreams are scenes put together with nothing that matches it to the previous ones. Seeing that some dreams have continuity, then the argument fails and cannot prove a difference between the dream world and waking life.
Further criticism on Descartes argument of dreaming and its reflection on the external world might not be about the premises of this argument and proving that dreaming and waking life can be differentiated. An opposition might be born …show more content…

For example, how we know that tomorrow the sun will rise. We base our knowledge from past experiences, nonetheless, there is no test to show that the sun will come up other than waiting till the next morning to see if it occurs as expected. Yet, this opposition does not provide certainty that the event will happen according to the past experiences, there could be an extraneous variable which has never been part of our experiences that occurs and prevents the expected outcome of occurring. So, this counter argument would have to be explained in more detail because the skeptics can also say that in the end someone might have thought he was awake, and experienced things with certainty, when in reality they might have just dreamt it. Which in return would make premise two follow premise one

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This is evident through arguments such as “The Argument from Past Failures”, “The Argument from Madness” and “The Dreaming Argument”. In Descartes’ famous “Dreaming Argument” Descartes argues that “there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep.”, giving an example where he thought he was sitting next to a fireplace, unaware he was actually in bed dreaming (13). This argument challenges the idea of the senses again as it presents the idea that we can never know if what we are currently experiencing is real as we may be in a dream. Proving that there is no way to differentiate between reality and a dream, resulting in the idea that our whole life may have just been a dream, Descartes provided a counter argument to elaborate on the “Dreaming Argument” known as the “The Painting Analogy”. This analogy explains how like a painting and painter, dreams derive their material based on experiences we have while awake (13).

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Uneventful dreams such as going to the store or mowing the lawn can be convincing enough for you to be unaware that you are dreaming. Skeptics argue that because you are not able to distinguish between some dreams and the external world, then one is unable to trust their own perception. The dreaming argument begs the question that if you can not distinguish between dreams and the external world on certain occasions then you cannot be certain that you are not dreaming at any moment of your day. Opposers of this sceptical scenario might protest that they know they are awake therefore they are not dreaming, but they have no evidence to back their claim because they are using the senses that have deceived them in the past. They are unable to obtain any knowledge about whether they can trust their senses.

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This ultimately keeps the reader on their toes regarding dreams, because they know that some part of it, may in fact be true, and another may be false. It is just a matter of which part and

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The idea that if one can comprehend something in a dream, it therefore must exist in real life. The fact of this is that we know no positive transition between our dream state and the state of reality, and since dreams are so similar to reality, one can never tell when they are truly dreaming. Descartes demonstrates this idea with his own experiences, “How often, asleep at night, am I convinced of just such familiar events-that I am here in my dressing-gown, sitting by the fire – when in fact I am lying undressed in bed! Yet at the moment my eyes are certainly awake” (Descartes 145). By using simple experiences like these Descartes is able to emphasize that when a person is dreaming, they do not usually know they are dreaming, and the sensations they experience are as real as if they were awake.

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