Short Paper on Descartes
Traditional Paper
Vicki Jones
Grantham University
Descartes
Descartes’ was a French philosopher, that refuse to accept his own senses, opinions, and those of other philosophers before him. He believe that his own senses and ideas was to be doubted, which he then decided to start over again in order to find the truth. His argument was clear that he doubted everything that cross his mind. Therefore, Descarte begin doubting his own beliefs, which lead him to question the dream argument as to whether it relates to dreaming or awake, and the pinch test. In this paper, I will give my own thoughts to Descartes conclusion about the reliability of the pinch test. I will also determine whether I can relate or agree to his reasoning and conclusion.
Descartes had to determine that it would be difficult to prove whether a person is dreaming or awake. According to our reading, Descartes theory was that only through the power of reason alone do we have a basis for accepting anything” (pg. 176). I myself have often doubted myown beliefs that I use to believe was true but I beleive that in order to accept truth, I must make sure that there are no doubts between my idea and theory. This is one reason why I focus on how can I determine whether or not it can be proven without a doubt that it would be difficult to determine if a person is dreaming or awake.
My thoughts to Descartes final conclusion is that the pinch test is full of doubts and that there is no actual conclusive that the test is inaccurate. Descartes would conclude that the pinch test can be doubted. For instance; based on my understanding is that if I am dreaming and I get pinch, most likely that pinch would cause me to wake. I also believe that his conclusion was base on his understanding that dreams are more within our minds. The reason I say this is because if I want to know if I am dreamimg or awake, I can pinch myself and if I feel that sting of my pinch then I know that I am awake. In my opinion, I think that this would be only to determine a dream or being awake. However, since this is only my opinion, Descrates believes that its very possible for a person that is dreaming to think or dream about pain but its hard to determine whether or not dreaming of a pinch of pain.