PHI 1103 Study Guide - Dream Argument
Document Summary
A quick summary of some important points in descartes" meditations 1 & 2: I see a tree, therefore a tree exists. Proof: the dream argument of the evil genius. I don"t exist uttered by whoever i is. Because its the utterance of the sentence is self-refuting: in order for me to say i don"t exist i must exist; therefore i don"t exist" whenever it is uttered is always false. This is what descartes illustrates with the wax example: I know it is the same piece of wax that undergoes the various changes it is subjected to, but i only see those changes.
