Rene Descartes 1596-1650 Rene Descartes 1596-1650

First Meditation: Arguments forDoubting all His beliefsDescartes’ point is that even though the senses deceive us some ofthe time, what basis for doubt exists for the immediate belief that, forexample, you are reading this article? But maybe the belief of readingthis article or of sitting by the fireplace is not based on truesensations at all but on the false sensations found in dreams. If suchsensations are just dreams, then it is not really the case that you arereading this article but in fact you are in bed asleep. Since there is noprincipled way of distinguishing waking life from dreams, any beliefbased on sensation has been shown to be doubtful. This includes notonly the mundane beliefs about reading articles or sitting by the firebut even the beliefs of experimental science are doubtful, becausethe observations upon which they are based may not be true butmere dream images. Therefore, all beliefs based on sensation havebeen called into doubt, because it might all be a dream.28