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Who Is Rene Descartes Dream Argument

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Rene Descartes, the French mathematician and leading figure in the history of modern philosophy, came up with six meditations that turned the Aristotelian doctrines upside down. Some may even consider his meditations to generally be considered the starting point of modern philosophy because he framed questions that are still being answered in philosophical debates today. Descartes found that during his life the senses deceive us. Because of this discovery in his lifetime he wrote six mediations. His method to fixing the way he was deceived in the past was to get back to the foundation of those beliefs and rebuild new beliefs from there; this is known as foundationalism. Foundationalism was the focal point of getting to the source of where …show more content…

“As if I were not a man who sleeps at night, and regularly has all the same experiences while asleep as madmen do when awake… 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!”(). I don’t believe in Descartes’ claim that there isn’t a way to be positive that one is not asleep. Based on 22 years of experience I am unquestionably able to tell whether I am dreaming or I am awake. One of the main differences is that the ‘dream’ world doesn’t have the continuousness of the ‘waking’ realm. In my life, things seem to be consistent on a daily basis, I go to sleep, wake up early for class sore from the workout the day before, I hop on my bike and ride to class, and then I go eat satisfactory food from the cafe. But if I am dreaming then I wouldn’t be waking up early, I would be driving a Ferrari to class, and I would be eating a 5 star meal. Not only is the ‘waking’ world regular but it is also full of completely different rules and laws than the ‘dream world’. In my dreams people can fly, my shots in basketball never seem to miss, and even Bill George Arena seems to be packed with fans every game. I know for a fact that these things do not occur in the ‘waking’ realm. Given that each world is so distinct and that I am definitely able to separate ‘waking’ from ‘dreaming’, it is decided that Descartes’ argument fails to support the amount of uncertainty that he claims. This is especially true because it could be argued that the images we see and form in our dreams can only be made up of the things we have seen and have experienced in the real, waking world. This reiterates why Descartes’ argument does not support his

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