ns are dubitable. Besides, many of us, at one point in our lives, have wondered this very philosophical question: Am I dreaming? Yet, even now, most of us would claim that we are awake; however, while in a dream, no one actually believes that they are actually sleeping. Nevertheless, Descartes doesnt concretely prove that we are dreaming. He doesnt have to. Instead, he merely raises the point that, at any moment, we may be dreaming. Just by presenting this simple possibility, Descartes successfully destroys all of our sensory beliefs. In a short few paragraphs, he questions the certainty of nearly half of our most basic beliefs.Still, the beliefs from understanding are unaffected. Beliefs from reason, including those from mathematics and logic, are ideas that hold true regardless of the situation. After all, two plus three is always five and a square always has four equal sides; unlike sensory beliefs, these beliefs remain constant in both the dream and conscious states of living. In his evil deceiver argument, Descartes claims that, however unlikely, there exists the possibility that an almost omnipotent, malicious demon is constantly controlling our thoughts and supplying our minds with incorrect information. If from the very beginnings of existence, the demon controlled us into falsely believing that two plus three is five, when in reality the sum is six, we would always have been deceived. As a result, if a malicious demon does exist, all of our thoughts from reason may be rendered dubitable. In twelve short paragraphs, Descartes demolishes all of our basic beliefs, with it crumbling all of the corollary beliefs that were once supported by them.The mastery of Descartess argument lies in the utter simplicity of the organization of the work. At first glance, Descartess goal, to destroy all beliefs in order to eventually create a stable structure in which all beliefs will be firmly grounded, seems like an immense and perh...
