This document provides a summary and analysis of Descartes' use of the skeptical strategy in Meditation I. It discusses how Descartes aims to doubt all his beliefs in order to establish certainty. It analyzes Descartes' arguments about sense perception, dreaming, mathematics, and the evil demon. It also examines whether Descartes successfully brought sense, imagination and reason into doubt. Finally, it discusses how Descartes realized he cannot doubt his own existence since he is a thinking being.

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Reflection on Descartes’ Meditation One
Introduction
This essay is a reflection on Descartes’ meditation. The paper is a critical analysis of
Descartes’ use of the skeptical strategy in Meditation; Concerning Those Things That Can Be
Called into Doubt. This work further brings forth the demonstrations of the arguments about
sense, dreaming, mathematics and the evil demon. The paper also tries to establish whether
Descartes have successfully brought into doubt sense, imagination and reason. Finally, the paper
identifies specific point made concerning our perceptual faculties when Descartes realized that
he cannot doubt his own existence.
In his first of the six meditations, Descartes suggests that he has been deceived over a
longer period of time, and the only way to establish certainty is to doubt everything he believed
in. This included not only the evidence of the senses and the profligate cultural assumptions but
even the basic route of reasoning. He held that if any truth about everything in the world can be
able to stand the challenge from skeptics, then it is unquestionable truth and opt to be the
foundation of knowledge. He asserts that demolishing everything and starting afresh sounds
good and the only way to do it (Bennett, 76).

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Appreciating the fact that knowledge is power, it will only be sound and rational if we
could beat skeptics in their own game by coming up with various possible bases for doubts. This,
followed by mechanisms to prove certainty of assumptions held will result to facts that can not
be doubted. This gives rooms for human to continuously reason, vital for human development
and well being.
Descartes’ use of the skeptical strategy in Meditation I
In his first meditation, Descartes holds the opinion that doubting everything is the only
sure way for him not to be misled into falsehood. His aim to use skeptic strategy rests on the idea
that defeating them in their own game will be result to indubitable facts. The method of doubt
helps him to further win against skeptics.
The philosopher uses three main arguments in his skeptic strategy. These arguments
include; dream, deceiving God and the evil Genius. All these three approaches hold that we do
not directly see external objects but rather through what our minds tell us which are the images
formed by the external objects in our minds.
For this reason, in order for Descartes to prove that science stems from a sound and
strong foundation, which lay in the mind and not our senses use skeptics to bring to question our
beliefs which come to us via our senses. It is worth noting that his arguments are not meant to
disapprove existence of external objects or the possibilities of us knowing that something
existed, but just to depict that our ability to know things (intelligence) through our senses leaves
room for questioning (doubt)
According to Murphy, 3 Descartes believed that if the knowledge we have is obtained via
sense, we are certain that everything outside of us ever existed. This implies that because we are

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not certain of existence of external objects, thus knowledge cannot be acquired through sense but
through our minds.
From the onset, this first meditation aimed at out-doing the skeptics in their own game by
coming up with the widest potential grounds for doubts, this ensures that what Descartes comes
up with will be believed with no doubt. He ends by admitting that there is nothing that he
initially believed to be true that he cannot somewhat doubt. On this basis, he is thus obliged to
ensure that what enters his mind is always unquestionable fact.
Arguments of senses, dreaming, mathematics and evil demon
Descartes arguments about senses, dreaming, mathematics and evil demon open our eyes.
According to Murphy, 1, Descartes argument on sense noted that relying on sense in respect to
any given judgment concerning the external objects may be deceptive especially when human
are faced with things that are perceptive and beyond reach. For this reason he says it will be
careful not to belief and rely on the senses we have.
On the other hand, although sense sometimes fails, it does not deceive us always, because
if it indeed could, then we could not be able to distinguish moments of deception. How people
see themselves compromise the reliability of depending on our senses. For this reason man can
deny obvious things and or support those that go against the reality. Thus, we are considered
lunatics.
What is brought out clearly is that all human being use senses, even the insane one, but
the only problem with them (insane) is that they don’t correct the deformations supervening on
their acuity and self-perception by high caliber of reasoning. Distinguishing madness and good
sense is vital as sensible people. Senses help us establish those of us who are insane in the
society, isolate them and treat them as socially deviant individuals.

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In his argument about dreaming Descartes holds that dreams are a non-pathological to
madness. He asserts that all of us sleep and dream imagining the same thing the insane imagine
when they are awake. Distinguishing dream experience and waking experience is a difficult and
almost impossible task. To him dreams depict that even under normal mental conditions our
sensory knowledge can be deceptive. This is attributed to the fact that it has occurred to him
severally that he was clothed and by the fire while indeed he was naked and lying in his bed.
Through his argument, man has been shown to be capable of sensing things that
undermine the trustworthiness of his senses. Dreams lack clarity and distinctness and cannot
compromise what we perceive while we are a wake. This thus gives us the ability to
distinguished valid perceptions from those that are only dreams; hence only belief the obvious
and discrete walking perceptions.
Another kind of dream which he termed vivid dreams bring trouble to man as he cannot
differentiate with certainty between walking perception and vivid dreams, thus his walking
perception offers no valid knowledge since man is thus not sure it is not a type of a dream. This
doesn’t mean that nothing which is of reality can be conveyed by our senses.
Descartes argument concerning mathematics on the basis of the dreaming argument
shows that empirical disciplines are doubtful while arithmetic, geometry things which deal with
most simple and general things are indubitable truths (Lex, 7). He said that whether he is a sleep
or not two plus three will add up to five and a square has no other four sides. Therefore, very
simple and general things in life are impossible to be shown to have some falsehood in them.
Thus transparent truths together with those that can be demonstrated together with various
judgment of internal sense are known.

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His argument about the evil demon shows that indeed it the source of our deception. The
evil demon has the ability to cheat us just as Descartes thought God could do, deceiving us from
even the most unquestionable issues.
Descartes’ doubt of sense, imagination and reason
In my own opinion, I believe that Descartes has successfully brought doubt to sense,
imagination and reason. He clearly and successfully doubted human sense by using his own. He
came to a conclusion that our sense can deceive us especially when the thing is perceptive and
beyond our reach. He was quick to read the other side of the coin where he asserted that, this is
not always true, if indeed it were then we could not be able to distinguish deception (Murphy, 2).
Coming to the issue of imagination, he asserts to my satisfaction that the general things
we see are representations of bodies, arms among others. Imagination brings about the novel
things but cannot invent their own simple components. He likens it to a cubist painter that use
simple and universal ideas to show reality. On reasoning, he argues out that it is what helps to
distinguish the sane and in sane persons
When Descartes cannot doubt his own existence
According to Bennett, 77 the point that clearly comes out when the philosopher did not
doubt his existence is that our mind, intellect, understanding, reasoning and soul are all equated
to thinking. He came to the conclusion that he un doubtfully exist after asking himself who he
was, he later concluded he is a thinking think.
We are also made to understand as human we need to acknowledge doubting, will,
refusal, imagination, denial, senses and affirmation

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Conclusion
Descartes first mediation aims at bringing everything in to doubt, questioning the
credibility of our own thinking. He does this successfully by clearly bringing doubt about the
issue of reasoning, dreaming (imagination), evil demon, deceiving God, mathematics. As human,
I believe that knowledge is vital in development of mankind. For this reason it will only be
rational to have indubitable foundation of knowledge.
His strategy to use skeptics and the method of doubt has proven beyond doubt that his
arguments are rational, his main goal in adopting this strategy was to beat skeptics in their own
game. In establishing without doubt about his existence, the point brought forth is that man is a
thinking thing.

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Works Cited
Bennett, Jonathan. “Truth and Stability in Descartes' Meditations,” Canadian Journal of
Philosophy, 16.1 (1990): 75–108. Print
Lex, Newman. Descartes' Epistemology. 2010. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-
epistemology/ [accessed 15 September 2010]
Murphy, Sean. Descartes: Overcoming skepticism in the Meditations, 2010.
http://www.helium.com/items/902527-descartes-overcoming-skepticism-in-the-
meditations [accessed 15 September 2010]