Decartes' Argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Decartes' Argument - Essay Example We look at and feel the objects around us with our senses- thus our senses are the gateway to understand the phenomena of the world. However, our senses and perceptions are defined in different ways. Sometimes we do not feel the same way about certain things at different times. As we grow from our infancy to adulthood and beyond, our perceptions change with time, our experiences, and learning. Therefore, we cannot depend upon our senses to comprehend or understand the nature of objects or the world itself. Our senses give us a limited knowledge about other objects or ourselves. For instance, we can sense or feel physical or emotional pain through our senses; yet we cannot ascertain the duration of pain from our previous experiences. This is an everyday example that manifests the limitation of trusting our senses. Descartes argued that passion led by reason can be trusted to a greater extent. This is because with each new experience, we learn something new about the way we perceive the world with our senses. If our reasoning faculty is in charge of our senses, we can broaden the areas where we can trust our senses. The claim is that if, in any particular case, the teachings of nature were untrustworthy, then the veracious God would have given us the means to correct it... we can ... trust the teachings of nature and believe that our sensations proceed from bodies, in spite of the fact that our inclinations are not always trustworthy. But, when another faculty, reason, of course, gives us the means to correct the teachings of nature, then they must be rejected... In the end, Descartes uses sensation to establish the existence of bodies, he is very careful to claim that sensation, by itself, does not establish the nature of bodies. (Rorty, 106) This is where other philosophers object to Descartes argument. He believes that senses do not belong to the material world as they keep changing with the change in objects; or sometimes convey incorrect perception of