Descartes

Imagine what it would be like to live in a world of constant questioning. What would it possibly be like to question even the obvious, such as "is this my hand?" One would think this type of abstract thought would qualify as residing on the brink of insanity. Others merely think of it as unadulterated genius. None the less, this is the type of thought that Descartes produced.

Descartes first great achievement came in the field of mathematics. Descartes' discovery was the art of analytical geometry. When he published this theory he realized it resembled closely a similar theory that caused Galileo to be incarcerated. He then withdrew his manuscript. This idea Descartes didn't agree with. He decided to trick the "religious establishment" by writing a book called Meditations. In this book he encrypted his ideas of physics, which the organization didn't realize.

Descartes then decided to rebuild all previous knowledge through a theory called Ð''radical doubt'. Radical doubt is the view of questioning everything till you reach its underlying truth. He wrote "everything I have learned either from the senses or through the senses." He then countered that by saying that the sensors are known deceivers so they cannot

be trusted. With this in effect it is fair to say that everything he has learned is completely false. Descartes also believed that it was possible that he was always dreaming. There was no way to prove this cause "any test you can think, you can dream."