Descartes Meditations On First Philosophy Rhetorical Analysis

Descartes ain’t no dummy! In his book, Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes challenges all his former beliefs by critically doubting them. When doing so, he aims to continue doubting until he is able to discover a belief that he cannot be doubted. Descartes is therefore searching for the truth, within the doubt. In his cogito argument, Descartes clearly navigates through three stages of doubt, leading him to ultimately overcome scepticism, and assure the certainty of his own existence because it is universally accepted, he eliminates all doubt, and it is indubitable. Descartes begins his Meditations by putting his former beliefs to the test by thoroughly questioning them with the essence of doubt. Descartes divides his doubting into three

In the first stage of doubt Descartes questions his senses, as he believes that the senses cannot be trusted as they often deceive us. He states, "Of course, whatever I have so far accepted as supremely true I have learned either from the senses or through the senses. But I have occasionally caught the senses deceiving me, and it's prudent never completely to trust those who have cheated us even once." As a result of this, we must withdraw our trust from our beliefs that have been learned through the use of our senses. Moving onwards to stage two, where Descartes now questions the aspect of dreaming. For the duration of this argument Descartes faces extreme philosophical scepticism, as he is in use of the skeptical voice, where he now doubts whether he is awake or is being deceived and is yet asleep in a dream. Over the course of stage three, Descartes' skeptical voice progresses, and in the third stage he begins to suspect that there is now an ‘evil demon’. This evil demon is now determined to trick Descartes and mess with his powers of

I believe that Rene Descartes overcomes the problem of scepticism throughout the duration of the cogito argument, as the argument can be considered a universally accepted truth. Regardless of one’s cultural background or individual beliefs, it is fundamentally known that we are all aware of having our own thoughts. We, as humans, have the capability to reflect inwards to our mental state and utilise introspection, which involves reflecting on one’s conscious processes. This ability to use introspection has no cultural boundaries or is confined to any specific religion, yet is inherent to the nature of human cognition. In addition, the cogito argument does not depend on any external resources, such as religious doctrine or cultural traditions, but alternatively stems from the indisputable human experience of being aware of our own thoughts. Moreover, the evidence that can be found from within makes Descartes’ cogito argument comprehensible to all rational individuals, despite what their cultural or religious background might