Part 4 of Discourse on Method [Rene Descartes]
The fact that the self-conscious mind is able to exist because of the act of thinking is often taken for granted by many philosophers. Descartes was right is asserting “I think, therefore I am.” We can certainly not doubt the cogito, however, from a modern philosophical perspective, Descartes’ discussion throughout Discourse on Method has its limits, and but it is surprising that by the end of Part 4 he actually opposes his own arguments and agrees that we can we can distinguish between awake and dreaming.
Initially, Descartes’ dream argument concludes that there is no difference is being awake and dreaming. He notes that there when he is asleep there are times when he thinks he is awake. If this were true, we would never be able to know whether our experiences are a dream or reality. Of course, Descartes argues that they are illusions of dreams. Even if our dreams were misleading us, they cannot mislead us in every way. Ultimately, even though are dreams are fictions, they are somehow based on reality, and the images we see are often borrowed from the real world. So our cream cannot completely deceive us.
Another limit to Descartes’ initial argument that we cannot rely on our sense-perception is that we learn certain truths by reasons rather than through our senses. Even if our sensory experience is not a faithful report, but we can still rely on reason. Fortunately, Descartes’ comes to realize this fact by the end of Part 4. Thus, we have a greater coherence of perception that helps us distinguish between the things we experience while we are awake and the things we experience while we are asleep. Thus, while Descartes’ initial dream argument may have been invalid, and regardless of whether he did not have the answer at the beginning, the truth is that we all can tell when we are awake and when we are asleep.
