PHIL 1610 Lecture Notes - Dream Argument, Adventitiousness
24 Mar 2014
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Descartes purposes to systematically follow a process of doubt. The doubt is not simply a common-sense one, instead, his doubt process is a philosophical one: the issue is whether a class of knowledge can be in any way doubted. The goal: to arrive at knowledge which is beyond any possible doubt, that is, absolutely certain knowledge. Descartes does not intend to doubt the truth of every specific judgment - an impossible task - but to underline, wherever possible, the foundations of one"s view. Descartes can do this by discussing broad classes of supposed knowledge, such as sensory knowledge or mathematical knowledge. The main/ first class of knowledge he brings under suspicion is sensory knowledge. Descartes, unlike plato, finds sensory knowledge important, as it makes the biggest chunk of knowledge we have. So, the first stage of doubt confirms that sensory knowledge is unreliable.
