when these ideas represent what is nothing as though it were something."(Descartes) On the contrary, through judgment or reason the material can be very well apprehended
Indeed, the knowledge of God's existence essentially arises from the consciousness that human knowledge is not yet complete, which is proof of human imperfection. Yet, there is also the simultaneous acknowledgement that the potential for perfection exists, which is the reason why human beings are constantly aspiring indefinitely for greater and better things (Descartes, p
Thus, Descartes utilized a method of systematic doubt to weed out those beliefs of which he could not be entirely certain. This approach is called "The Method of Doubt," and Descartes likened it to "that of a man who takes all the apples out of a barrel one by one, inspects them, and then puts the sound ones back" (Bellotti 1)
, a science) (Palmquist 2). His idea was that the only way to overcome personal prejudices and preconceived notions would be to doubt everything one believes and start over by developing a method that would guarantee absolute certainty (Carroll 25)
In the "dream" world, people can fly, cartoons and TV characters can come to life and even stranger things can happen that simply do not occur in the "waking" world. In stark contrast, these things do not happen in the 'waking' world (LaBossiere 2)
The impasse was created by the lack of "any completely certain truth" that could serve as an indisputable starting point for constructing a genuine system of knowledge (i.e., a science) (Palmquist 2)
People do have this strong habit of relying n our past convictions. Even if they are occasionally misleading, they are [nevertheless] very probable (21 September, Wednesday: Meditation I 2)
"Cartesian skepticism" advocates the doubting of all things which cannot be justified through logic. The establishment of a secure foundation for the sciences is the end (Yates 1)