Mind and Senses
The idea of skepticism is a methodology that is used to ensure that the certainty of knowledge is achieved through the diversified means. Every idea of knowledge requires it to be justified by all means since it is never enough to only rely on a belief that is perceived to be true and therefore an individual must have a good understanding and a reason for the same belief (Descartes, 2015). Skeptics always argue that there is no way of having a justification that is complete and that has no possibility of change. Skepticism in many cases involves the idea that the understanding of a person is only different mentally since different people can have different ideologies and room for change. Knowledge allows different fields to be associated in terms of making a claim and therefore if a person has the capability of making a claim supporting it should follow (Frankfurt, 2009). In this article, I will argue on the basis of being involved as a being that has life and a purpose including the fact that trusting in God is essential since we all exist in Him. Being in existence and having the capability of thinking is the sole reason for the article.
The main reason for this article is to show that the scientific knowhow and understanding does not rely on the senses but on the mind of a person. Science and religion in many cases can be compatible and increase the likelihood of finding a solution with just applying both theories (Descartes, 2015). The body in this case according to Descartes meditations is science while the mind will truly be inclined to the religious truth, for example, God exists is a mind affiliation from Descartes Meditations.
Main attribution for his meditations he exists because he is a thinking being is not to show that there is nothing that exists but to indicate that the knowledge of anything is always open to doubts through our senses (Descartes, 2015). According to the article, if the scientific knowledge is obtained through our senses, then it is correct that we all could not be sure that anything really existed outside our senses. The only understanding is that the external objectives exist through our minds and it is never from our senses.
Descartes claiming to exist as a thinking being is correct in the essence that the thinking is attributed to the fact that God and evil exist. If at all God who is all powerful and commands the thinking does exist then the idea of being in existence is true (Descartes, 2015). Everything that has thinking has an existence and therefore the meditator is correct in what he says as being in existence as a thing that is thinking. For the meditator to exist, then there has to be me in place making it clear that one has to exist to be regarded as thinking.
In reality, God exists through the various features that we can see. According to the article, Descartes must understand that the world does exist because there is a God who also does exist. If God exists in the world and has power over the world, then there is no doubt that we all have an obligation to entrust Him and put all our senses towards Him (Frankfurt, 2009). The meditator has surely succeeded in his argument since a thinking being can always exist. Our senses never bring us into contact with the materials or the objects themselves but with the images in our mentality and therefore the senses never project the ideology of the world ever having whatever we experience in our minds. Through the introduction of having a deceiving God, the dream and the evil demon, Descartes ensure that his ideology of being in existence as a thinking being is not doubtable (Descartes, 2015).
According to the dream argument, the sensation experienced while dreaming is almost similar to the perceptions he has in his mind. In this setting, there is no one way of making the dream different from the perception and this can mean that he is dreaming every moment and his perceptions are very wrong which is an illusion opening the chances for doubts. Descartes believes that there is a God who is very powerful and we all owe Him everything we have but have the capability of deceiving us mathematically even if it is a solution we all know the outcome, therefore, a room for doubt. For this, an evil spirit or being must be in existence in order to deceive us since the all powerful God has control over everything even our sense which we trust so much.
Descartes supports his doubts through the existence of a deceiver who is in our senses and therefore the controller of our thinking of being in existence (Frankfurt, 2009). One can be deceived on the basis of their thoughts but there is no doubt about one being in existence and the certainty of objects can also not be doubtable in any case. Descartes argument about being a thinking thing in existence is now escalated due to the fact that he has the knowledge and the senses of believing he exists as a thinking thing.
References
Descartes, R. (2015). Meditations on first philosophy. Central Works of Philosophy Central Works of Philosophy is a multi-volume set of essays on the core texts of the Western philosophical tradition. From Plato s Republic to the present day, the volumes range over 2,500 years of philosophical writing covering the best, most representative, and most influential work of some of our greatest philoso, 15.
Frankfurt, H. G. (2009). Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen: The Defense of Reason in Descartes's" Meditations". Princeton University Press.
