Wake up, Neo…
Before you start reading, please make sure you have finished Descartes’ Discours sur la méthode book so that this article is more understandable to you.
Firstly, I want to describe the main idea of Descartes completely. Then I will explain my own argument and give some relevant examples about to illustrate and advance my claim. At the first Meditation, Descartes clearly claims that if you are not absolutely sure of anything, you must doubt it. Even you know something very well, you should think longitudinally about that matter. All suspicious thoughts must be removed from the mind, and mind must be built on certain thoughts. Because nothing could be as it seems, Descartes said. And then continue, how can I know that if everything is just a shiftiness? Then he started to examine and query the truth. He determines that he should separate the questions and problems he should query to solve each of them and sorts them from simple to complex. He planned he should examine and interpret these simple examples and things to come to some conclusions. If he finds any wrong thing about things he examines when he is evaluating, he decided that the thing is totally wrong. With this way, he could find the connection between things and his reality. But it is not easy to demolish and take the views that you have believed ever since, and to adopt what you believe in place. So, you must remember frequently why you left your old suspicious thoughts behind and tell yourself why your new thoughts are with you to continue your way confidently.
Although the senses sometimes deceive us, they are generally certain. So, he started to examine his research with thinking senses. I have mentioned his way of thinking at the top (being doubted for everything he does not sure certainly), so he terrified of what he thinks at first. Because if he cannot be sure from things which he doubts, he cannot understand if he is awake or asleep. He realises that even the simple things he believes, such as the sum of two and two is five and the square has four sides, cannot be certainly true and undoubtedly, after he had experienced such a strong shock.
He claims that an evil demon could trick him and makes he be doubted, but still that behaviour does not fit the work of God. Because he believes the God is an exemplary symbol of goodness. Nevertheless, he considered that there could be a trick and an evil demon really could trick him about if life is a dream. But how could be he sure and made his own way?
Descartes really devote oneself that meditation and thought. He has found the answer like this: thinking. Because the only thing he could not doubt was thinking. The fact that I am thinking, even if I think I am dreaming or I do not have an own body, cannot be changed. So, he had said that famous words: “Cogito, ergo sum” which means I think, therefore I am. At the same time, this fact proves that it is indeed a trick. If he has ability of grip this situation, there is indeed a trick. Despite all this, these words cannot prove whether life is a dream or not, but they prove he really exists.
So far, I have explained Descartes’s view and why he thinks so. Now, I will convey my own thoughts and examine this situation in my own words. I agree with Descartes, we cannot notice if this life is a dream. In the dream, all things are reflection or reproduced from real life. We cannot see any different things which we did not see in the real world. Even if nothing is real, the colours on what we see are real. To give a fantastic example, you can examine the universe of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft.
Now, I evaluate his argument to strength Descartes’s claim:
When I am dreaming, I cannot prove that I am dreaming.
When I am awake, I cannot prove that I am dreaming.
Therefore, being awake is being in a dream.
I will make descriptions to better explain the above statements. Let’s say I am in a dream and saw one of my friends. Somehow, even I noticed I am in a dream, when I say to my friends it is a dream, he will say that: “What dream? Let’s do something.” and I would be tricked. So, I never can prove I am dreaming if I really am dreaming. And for the second premise, I never can prove I am awake, too. Because even in the dream, I thought I am awake. I mean, it could be another dream. So, my second premise is true, too. The conclusion of these two premises is the real life could be a dream.
Someone can opposes my argument just like that: If you go to the bed and close your eyes then dream and eventually go the normal life after waking up and if you know what is the dream concept, then you can distinguish the difference between reality and dream. Well, I want to respond that claim with that sentence I already have said: The senses can be deceived. We query everything. In sum, we cannot understand if this life is a dream. In other words, it could be a dream.
