PHIL 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cogito Ergo Sum, Evil Demon, Daniel Dennett
24 Sep 2016
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Epistemology, scepticism & the scientific revolution of the 17th. The dreaming argument: dreams can be vivid, coherent, realistic, therefore, i have no means of knowing that my present experiences are not dream experiences, therefore, i cannot know that any of my (perceptual) beliefs are true. Descartes > thinks the dreaming argument is very powerful as far as he can see at the moment, it casts doubt on many of his beliefs: If, on any occasion, it is possible that i am merely dreaming, then i cannot know anything about my physical surroundings, even that i am seated by a re wearing my dressing gown. The evil demon argument: there is no such evil demon, at the end of meditation 1 descartes says that, as far as he can see, the evil demon argument renders all of his/our beliefs doubtful. He decides to suspend judgement about all of his beliefs.
