and we are being deceived into thinking it is reality. Descartes also finds that anything that exists physically is false, even including his own body. The only things we should trust are those beliefs that can be held up to rational scrutiny. Thus Descartes doubts everything but himself, he feels himself is the only thing in this life which cannot be proven false. He states that if he had no knowledge of himself than nothing can be certain. If he himself can doubt than he must exist and in cannot be proven false. Another proof that he exists is that in order to be deceived one must be able to exist. Descartes states in his famous quote, "I think, therefore I am." What was just explained above is Descartes first step to gaining knowledge, that is to build on what you know is certain and use yourself as the foundations. Now his second step he tries to show how we know bodies through reason and now through our senses. He uses a piece of wax to demonstrate this theory.A piece of wax place by a fire will in time change form and shape and thus lose all its specific properties, yet it is still known as wax. In order to understand what wax is you must be able to know it in all its forms and anticipate its changes. But Descartes argues that the shapes and forms that the wax could take are infinite. Thus, one can only know what an object is through understanding, rather than through sense-perception.In his third meditation Descartes discusses the topic of God. Me makes the argument that God exists, he makes two points with this argument. The first being that we have an idea of God and the second being that the only way to have an idea of God is if God exists. To have an the idea of God than we have the understanding of the infinite. We cannot understand the infinite through the finite, only through the infinite, thus God must also be the cause of the idea of God. By following these three steps one can be on their way to gaining k...
