Reality Vs. Fantasy

RenÐ"© Descartes, author of "Meditation 1", writes how he must erase everything he

had ever learned and thought to be true and must "begin again from the first foundations"

(222). One may ask how Descartes came to this conclusion. The answer is that of he

"realized how many were the false opinions that in [his] youth [he] took to be true, and

thus how doubtful were all the things that [he] subsequently built upon these opinions"

(222). This change was to take place at the perfect time in Descartes life however, he

wasted much time waiting for that moment Descartes decided to simply let go of it. He

started questioning everything he ever believed in. Descartes raised one specific question:

How does one justify being awake from dreaming? He gives an example stating "that I

am here, clothed in my dressing gown, seated at the fireplace, when in fact I am lying

undressed between he blankets!" (222). Descartes describes how a dream may feel so

real, one might actually think their dream is in fact reality. He goes on further saying

"plainly that there are no definite signs to distinguish being awake from being asleep that

I am quite astonished, and this astonishment almost convinces me that I am sleeping"

(222). This all lead to Descartes coming up with a theory that "perhaps we do not even

have these hands, or any such body at all" (223). He started questioning the existence of

God as well, wondering whether or not he existed or if the heavens and earth were

actually there. More questioning followed asking himself "how do I know that I am not

deceived every time I add two and three or count the sides of a square or perform an even simpler operationÐ'..." (203). What Descartes became certain of was that an evil genius "as

clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who had directed his entire effort to misleading

me" (224) and a conclusion was made that he would "regard [himself] as having no

hands, no eyes, no flesh, no blood, no senses, but as nevertheless falsely believing that

[he] possess[es] all these things" (224).

Descartes reasoning in my opinion is false for the most part. I would have to agree with him that people should sometimes examine their belief to see whether or not it is accurate. People dream of things that seem very realistic as if it were actually happening however, once they are awake they can distinguish what was reality and what was a dream. Sometimes being fooled by a dream doesn't come to the conclusion that everything around us and everything we believe does not actually exist. However, it is possible to also dream that one woke up in their dreams remembering the dream they were having. The dream may have felt real but in the end they when they were awake the difference between reality and dream could be pointed out. Someone can not be 100 percent sure of something but they can be confident about what they believe is real vs. dream. A person who has a hand is aware of it. All the physical ways to know a hand is there exists. They can see it, feel it, touch it, and use it. The question Descartes raises says that even though we can see a hand how do we know it is truly there and it isn't our imaginations or a dream. Reality is what it is. We know