Descartes begins his first meditation by describin Essays

Descartes begins his first meditation by describing the concept of false beliefs. False beliefs, he believes, are common for every person. He does not condemn any person for having false beliefs, but rather accepts that he himself has also had false beliefs. Descartes, in many ways, feels revolutionary in how he is willing to accept the fallibility of humanity. He does not appear to live in a world where every human is perfect because he is made in God's image, but rather every human is made by God, and it is their duty to seek out the best way to live. It is up to people to not error. Out of this reasoning, Descartes comes to the conclusion that in order for a person to establish a firm basis for scientific knowledge, "I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last" (pg 15). From the start, Descartes writes that it is not rational to trust only your senses, as they are likely to mislead you. He writes, "Once the foundations of a building are undermined, anything built on them collapses of its own accord" (pg 16). And he warns that if a person continues to make assumptions based on their senses, more than once, it will turn into a habit. Their foundation is ruined and any other ideas or concepts they build upon it are damaged. Despite these doubts, Descartes seems to be very wishy washy as to the validity of one's senses. He declares that under many conditions, sense perception could actually be correct, despite just seeming to say the contrary. He writes these conditions, acknowledging that they exist and that it is possible. But then, he seems to undermine himself once more, by recounting these cases but showing how such perceptions could not be applied. The examples that he uses are flip flopped back and forth, making it hard for a person to understand what side Descartes lands on. For example, he recounts that when one dreams, one often dreams about colors and shapes they know to be true, but the imagination also has the capacity to create new shapes as well. A person could dream about a made up animal, but they would probably use parts from animals that already exist. But the imagination always has the capacity to create a new creature with no traits borrowed from reality. So in the end, he seems to land on the side of not trusting one's own senses. So while he acknowledges the probability that sense can be reliable, he never the less comes full circle back to the idea that a person can not trust their senses. Descartes can be frustrating to read, because he seems to always display both sides of the argument without ever choosing one. So it is sometimes hard to know his mind. But what he lacks in strong stances, he makes up for in demonstrations and examples. Descartes not only demonstrates how he can be lead astray by dreams, but also demonstrates how he could be led to be false if he was mad or if he was deceived by demons. He writes that if he were mad he may believe different senseless things (example: his own head being a pumpkin). The same thing would happen if he were deceived by demons, as everything which God has shown him would have no relation to reality. Descartes's first meditation seems to show a fundamental approach to rational reasoning. This of course will become pivotal to the scientific method. Descartes formulates his rule that nothing should be believed if it has any obvious uncertainty. In other terms, he believes it to be vital to avoid hasty conclusions and prejudices if one wants to maintain rational thought. Descartes states that only facts, which cannot be questioned or opposed by means of logic, should reflect objective reality