Essay --

Skepticism In Meditation 1, Descartes is confronted by the idea that throughout his life he has been taught numerous false truths. As his metaphysical knowledge is based on the things which he has been taught, they too are proven false and he is left without any indubitable ideas or beliefs. After Descartes puts all he knows under doubt, he begins to attempt to regain his knowledge of the world by thinking exclusively of absolute truths. On this mission, he encounters three arguments for accepting knowledge and beliefs as true and unfaltering. Through the course of the following paragraphs, I plan to dissect the different arguments and show how each of them test the validity of true knowledge. Having been faced with the idea that his current wisdom is false, Descartes begins doubting his ideas and opinions as he feels that it will allow him to seek a studier foundation for knowledge. Rather than doubt every one of his opinions individually, he reasons that he might cast them all into doubt if he can doubt the foundations and basic principles upon which his opinions are founded. By comparing his beliefs to an apple basket and a rot in an apple to the falsity of opinion, Descartes reasons that by dumping all the apples/ beliefs, it will be easier to remove the rotten ones. He wants to remove all the false belief he currently wrongly holds true because having one false belief leads to having other false ideas as well. Descartes thinks this method of investigation and trial is defendable as beliefs are not independent of one another and only by doing this will he be able to attain indubitable knowledge. Starting from a blank slate, he plans to build back his knowledge one clea r and distinct proposition at a time. While Descartes is... ...nto doubt beliefs based on sense perception and on scientific ideas. Ideas such as gravity get dismissed because one doesn't know if it is simply something that occurs in dreams and whether instead levitation is a reality. Descartes in the beginning of Meditation 1 says that â€Å"arithmetic, geometry and other subjects of this kind, which deal only with the simplest and most general things, regardless of whether they really exist in nature or not, contain something certain and indubitable. For whether I am awake or asleep, two and three added together are five†. He goes on to also explain that a square has only four sides in both a dream state and not dream state. Therefore, we can still trust other beliefs of the world, such as concepts that deal with the most simple and general things; just not on the beliefs that are based off the senses. This brings us to the third