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Descartes Senses Are Sometimes Deception

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My thesis is that Descartes is correct when he says that the senses can be deceived and therefore they cannot be trusted, Descartes mentioned that he would confront the principles which he had supported everything that he believed. In most of the cases we use the information that our senses give us as true; however, we cannot trust our senses because they can deceive us and provide us with information that is not true or accurate. Descartes’ best argument for my thesis is that as he mentioned “I have noticed that the senses are sometimes deceptive, and it is mark of prudence never to place our complete trust in those who have deceived us even once”. We cannot trust and relay that our senses are dependable. “Even thought the senses do sometimes deceive us when it is a question of very small and distant things. (Descartes p. 60) As Descartes mentioned, senses can make us believe things that are not real or correct. The example of an optical illusion, our senses are telling us that what we see is real, but in fact it is not real and our senses are deceiving us of the reality. …show more content…

The senses provide us with immediate information about things and our surroundings. The senses such as our hearing, eye sight, sense of smell, touch and taste can all agree in telling us information about something. Even if something is small and distant as Descartes mention, we can concentrate and get closer to better appreciate it with our senses. Our senses can provide us with important information that is useful for our survival; If we fell pain, we will react in order to avoid

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“Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses. But occasionally I have found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once” (Descartes). By this, he means that our perceptions are deceptions created by our senses to trick us into believing that we are awake and going about our day when in actuality, we are dreaming and the world around us is an illusion. Hence, we shouldn’t trust our senses to give us any true knowledge of the world because it may always be deceiving us. It is true that senses can deceive, however, for us to know that our senses are deceiving us, we must differentiate between reality and what is deception.

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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.

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Descartes begins his argument by comparing the dreams he could have to the dreams of a madman. He says he has similar experiences as one would except of a madman why asleep, if even sometimes more outlandish ones (Descartes, 13). He goes on to describe how his dreams in the past contained events that are hardly different from the time he considered himself to be awake. Theses help to support the claim that there is no way to tell whether or not he is dreaming or awake. This defines Descartes’ first premise to be “If you cannot distinguish between the time when you are dreaming and the time when you are awake using the sense, then the sense can be doubted.

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However, Descartes accepts that humans can be wrong by relying on their sensory knowledge, though mostly on small objects in life. Because the senses can be incorrect, skepticism states that it isn't what Descartes searches for. Descartes tries to reassure himself, saying that it his sense must have some truth, since he is not a mad person. However, mad people are certain that what they see is real, and Descartes has just proven that his sensory knowledge can be wrong at times, so skepticism states that he can never be sure that he isn't insane. Skepticism also doubts whether people's lives are dreams or not, as people can confuse their dreams as real

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After reading Descartes' process of methodical doubt, I'd have to state that I somewhat agree and disagree on Descartes' statement that reason is a more reliable source of knowledge as opposed to sensory observation/experience. I believe that us, individuals obtain most of our knowledge by experiencing/observing, however, I also do agree with Descartes' that sometimes what we observe is not true or real, that it is sometimes a misconception. But, just because we have had one or even a few of our sensory experiences mistaken, does not signify or provide reason to doubt all of your sensory observations or experiences. Furthermore, I do think that reason is also is another way or method of obtaining or searching for knowledge, who says that both

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