Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
Descartes puts the argument more cogently. In the first stage, all the beliefs we have
ever received from sensory perceptions are called into doubt.. Descartes presents two
reasons for doubting that our sensory perceptions tell us the truth.
First of all, our senses have been known to deceive us. Examples of the sort of
systematic deception he has in mind here include phenomena such as the bent
appearance of a straight stick when viewed in water and the optical illusion of smallness
created by distance.
The second doubt that Descartes brings to bear on sensory perceptions is It is called
the “Dreamer Argument”. The Sensations experienced while we are asleep in dreams
are as indistinguishable from those that we have when we are awake. Yet they are not
reality. Yet our waking sensations are as real only as they are in our dreams. All
beliefs based on sensation have been called into doubt, because it might all be a dream.
In the second stage, even our intellectual beliefs are called into doubt through "Evil
Demon Argument". People are known to make mistakes in their convictions, For all we
know, God (or some lesser being) is manipulating our thoughts, causing things to seem
certain when really they are not.
The only reliable conclusion we can make simply is : "I think, therefore I am." the very
act of thought proves existence, because one cannot possibly think without existing. So
the only reality we can affirm without doubt is our Consciousness which alone is the
ultimate reality. All others are illusion.
At the beginning of the second meditation, having reached what he considers to be the
ultimate level of doubt — his argument from the existence of a deceiving god —
Descartes examines his beliefs to see if any have survived the doubt. In his belief in his
own existence, he finds that it is impossible to doubt that he exists. Even if there were a
deceiving god (or an evil demon), one's belief in their own existence would be secure,
for there is no way one could be deceived unless one existed in order to be deceived.
But I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no
earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I, too, do not exist? No. If I
convinced myself of something [or thought anything at all], then I certainly existed. But
there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who deliberately and constantly
120