Rene Descartes Skepticism

Skepticism puts everything into doubt, and states that which can be doubted must be unreliable for reasoning. Information acquired through the senses can appear real in situations where it may be false, such as the impression of a dream. This is a basis for argument that any belief about the outside world derived from one’s senses is faulty information.

Perception is like a shadow casted over us which hides from us the truth of our existence. In “Meditations on First Philosophy”, Rene Descartes practices skepticism by doubting all the beliefs he considers to be true. He then seeks to create a new set of beliefs that he can be absolutely certain are truth. Through filtering his old beliefs through a system of skepticism, he determines that

In seeking the truth from the false, one can look at the core elements of a belief and ask if it can be doubted. If it can be doubted, there is no way to have completely certainty that it can be truth, and if not completely certain it is the truth, then how does one know for certain that it is not the false? This is the basis of skepticism.

Our perception of the world changes based on the knowledge we acquire and the experiences we go through. As humans, we seek to understand this world and look toward one another for answers. Along the way we pick up each other’s opinions and notions which may not necessarily be true. We live with false pretenses, which can alter our perception and affect how we relate to each other and the world around us.

If we filter all opinions through skepticism we see that there is not much that cannot be doubted. This process frees one from preconceived judgements and detaches us from ideas that are not certainly true and may be blocking us from discovering new ideas, ideas which put through the same process can be certain are true. This is what Rene Descartes meant when he believed he had to demolish his current system of beliefs for a new one of