Rene Descartes 'Dream Argument'

Test of Perception

The basic premises on which we rely to grasp reality are our senses. We hear Church bells ringing, see the mesmerizing colors of a rainbow, smell the aroma of a fresh batch of cookies, taste the pungent flavors of chili peppers, and physically touch the ground on which we at least perceive we are standing. Descartes presents a dream argument that the senses are deceitful and one cannot distinguish between dream and reality. First I shall dive into Descartes’ dream argument, then present Hetherington’s two ways of challenging the dream argument, and then finally provide my own viewpoint. The dream argument for skepticism is possible; but without believing the very foundations conceived from perception, there is nothing to lie back on, resulting in an unsettling life of no meaning. René Descartes, on a quest for truth, liberates himself from all his beliefs. Applying his method of doubt, he throws away everything he knows in a process of eradication and reconstruction as he then looks for beliefs which are certain and indubitable. Aware of the daunting task ahead, Descartes pinpoints his attack on what he considers the foundational basis of reality, perception along with its credibility. Dreams can oftentimes be so realistic that we are convinced that a dream
is reality, until we wake up. Considering this, in his dream argument Descartes argues his senses are untrustworthy as they are able to deceive him into thinking that a dream is reality. “That makes imagination suspect, for while I know for sure I exist, I know that everything relating to the nature of body including imagination could be mere dreams...” (Descartes 5).
How do we know when we’re dreaming, and when we’re not? If you cannot prove that you can discern reality, then you do not genuinely know what is going on in the world around you. Descartes shatters the basis of our comfort zone in pointing out that we cannot trust the things we take for granted from even sense perception. It is possible I am dreaming right now, and that all my perceptions are false. Knowledge, common knowledge included, becomes undermined and everything begins to tear apart from the
seams. “By trying to doubt your existence, you prove your existence to yourself” (Hetherington 31). Hetherington, in Yes, But How Do You Know?, challenges the dream argument through discussing the faculties of observation and reasoning. Empiricists believe knowledge is obtained through means of observation: if you observe it, it exists. The evidence is in what we see, details included; the compilation of everything we see, from objects to occurrences, molds together into seemingly pragmatic knowledge. On the opposing end are rationalists who put little to no importance on information gained from the senses, yet rather fully depend and concentrate on thinking. An example is the famous, “I think, therefore I am”; for Descartes, from the knowledge of his consciousness (“I think”), deduces with reason that he does exist, in that moment, as a thinker—“I am” (Hetherington 33). Hetherington even combines the two components as he touches on inductive reasoning, where neither observation nor reason becomes sufficient for definitive knowledge (Hetherington 40). It involves “extrapolating from evidence claiming to report observations”, which then “suggests that the so-far-observed would continue more if Xs were to be observed” (Hetherington 41). Though easily conceivable, further inspection into the details of Hetherington’s challenges to the dream argument reveals greater complications. With the component of observation, I cannot see everything at once. Though what I see may make sense to me momentarily, for all I know, when I look away, the object could have simply vanished and then reappeared by the time I look back. In addition, with rationalism and inductive reasoning, we fabricate reasons and then establish them as ‘knowledge’ as we try to make sense of the world. We could be manipulated into believing that 2+2=4, or any other belief, by an evil demon (Hetherington 29). My senses overall could be deceiving as well; for example, when I see a radio and hear music that I believe is coming from a radio, I could, in actuality, be standing in a prison cell experiencing hallucinations, or be a test subject in an experiment designed to fool the subject.
My being able to think may not even be dependent on the claim that I exist. I may simply be playing a minor role in someone else’s dream. Though I do feel that Descartes’ dream argument is a possibility, and that there will always be doubt regarding the truth, I prefer to maintain a realistic outlook, one in which there is rhyme and reason to my existence and significance to my actions.

Bibliography
Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated. Ed. Jonathan Bennett. 2010. Print.
Hetherington, Stephen Cade. Yes, But How Do You Know? : Introducing Philosophy Through Sceptical Ideas. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2009. Print.