Rene Descartes False Reality

Senses, Perception and a False Reality

Reality is defined as “the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them” according to Webster’s dictionary. We know that this world exists because we can perceive it using any given sense, but how can we certainly know that the world we experience is not an illusion being forced upon us? Can we really trust our senses to confirm we are not currently dreaming and that in fact there is a real world? Although there might not be any philosophical proof for this topic these are some questions Rene Descartes may make you wonder about when reading his Rationalist Epistemology. De omnibus dubitandum est (Everything is to be doubted) is part of his foundation
What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?” Morpheus asks Neo in The Matrix (The Matrix 31:35 to 31:56). Descartes asks himself the same questions as he stares at his hand and begins to question if it is in fact his hand what he is looking at or the product of a vivid dream. He wonders, how many times has he ever dreamed about himself sitting by the fire in the same scenario? How can we distinguish a dream from being awake? If the sensations we perceive through our senses dictate what is real, does that mean our dreams are real? He is mindful about the occasions he has been deceived by his dreams into thinking something is real and how there is no test to prove he is not dreaming just like in The Matrix there is no way to prove your body is plugged into a computer and that the reality everyone is experiencing is fake. We can conclude there is no philosophical proof to this theory anyone can’t dream about, so for that reason it cannot be proven that we are fully awake or perhaps dreaming and that this reality is a result of the sensations perceived in our dreams. (Palmer, Nagel. 6th ed. pp.
According to Descartes this entity may be in charge of making us believe that every bit of knowledge and information we have access to is true. He also believes that this entity is erroneously leading our senses into falsely believing everything we perceive, therefore the reality we live in may or may not be true after all. There is no doubt that in The Matrix the machines act like this “evil genius”, stimulating the senses of the human beings that are attached to their pods. Once again our senses are put in doubt and Descartes feels the need to question if they can be trusted. (Palmer, Nagel. 6th ed. pp.