Descartes’ First and Second Mediations

Rene Descartes was once out to determine how he sorted things out and how he knew them as either right or wrong. In his experiment, Descartes decided to use the following two mediations

i. He decided that he should not examine his beliefs as this may take longer due to the extensive nature of the brain and so he decide that he should only examine the very foundation of the beliefs like whether he trusted his sensory beliefs, physics belief, mathematics belief, comprehensive belief and the rest. ii. In his second mediation, Descartes decided to reject the slightest possibility that a belief is false and he decided not to throw away the suspected false belief but to use it as a candidate for knowledge.

Having concluded his mediations, this greatest thinker decided to apply his two methods using the following three ways.

a) Descartes believed that sometimes human senses are deceptive. This is true that at certain moments our senses can deceive us. For example we might find ourselves looking for something small that is very close to us at a very far distance. Moreover, a tall building from a long distance always looks very small but in real sense the building does not change its size but the sense of our eyes do. Descartes also uses the example of refraction in physics. He argues that our senses lie to us in that if a stick or a ruler is placed in water it looks bent but in actual sense the stick or the ruler are straight. Descartes further argues that this is the basis behind hallucinations and for this reason our senses manufacture a lot of deception. Take the example of staring too much in the sun and then look at the object. It is usually true that the objects color is usually obscured from your senses but later when realized th...

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... to his criteria of knowledge which is infallibility. In this criterion Descartes argue that if you are wrong about something once there is a big possibility that you could be wrong about it next time hence the we cannot count on you knowing that particular information.

Having applied these three methods of doubt, Descartes made a conclusion that, I think, therefore I am translated in Greek as Cogito ego sum. According to Descartes a thinking thing involves doubt, understanding, affirming, denying, willingness, unwillingness and that also the imagines which have sensory perceptions (Rene Descartes). Descartes further conclude by saying that a demon will only deceive something if it is there and therefore the thing must exist.

Works Cited

Rene Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy, Third Edition,Translated by Donald A. Cress. London : Pearson, 2005.