After all, he rationalizes, he is aware of the fact that sometimes he is dreaming and since this is the case, might not all the world be a dream? "As if I were not a man who sleeps at night and often has all the same experiences while asleep as madmen do when awake -- indeed sometimes even more improbable ones. Often in my dreams I am convinced of just such familiar events -- that I am sitting by the fire in my dressing-gown -- when in fact I am lying undressed in bed" (Descartes 1)
Therefore, Locke argues that Descartes has no proof to his claims that universal principles must necessarily be part of man's "inherent faculties" (Locke). While Descartes insists that all knowledge gained from sensory experience after birth is deceptive and misleading, and therefore only inborn knowledge can be based on truth (Descartes), Locke argues that all men may come to universal, truthful conclusions based on sensory experience and reflection after birth (Locke)
Locke's first argument in refute of Descartes' innatism is the existence of universal assent. Universal assent is the idea that all men could reasonably agree that there are "certain principles, both speculative and practical (for they speak of both), universally agreed upon by all mankind; which therefore; they argue, must needs be constant impressions which the souls of men receive in their first beings" (Locke)
Therefore, the dreaming argument leaves unchallenged our belief in general truths about the world (the belief that we have hands and what these hands do for us). One of the reasons Descartes believed his mind to be essentially non-physical is that he found himself able to doubt the existence of all physical objects (even his own hand) but could not doubt that he was a thinking being (Williams, 1998)
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
As Langer states, "entities too much like themselves" can also lead to misrepresentation and misunderstanding (81). Structures and symbols "cannot include as part of a symbol something that should properly be part of the meaning," (Langer 81)
The clearest, and best known substance for him [thinking individual]. Upon this foundation, Descartes builds all his other knowledge claims" (Hauptli, 2008, Chapter 27)
Meditations tells us that our faculty of reason is of paramount importance. Moreover, our faculty of reason is capable of judgment because it is rational and as epistemology would maintain, the way we should think; our proper reasoning -- it should entail logic and objectivity (Landauer & Rowlands, 2001)
At the same time, Descartes wrote, God could confirm all of the arguments he was making. In this respect, God became an integral part of Descartes's philosophy (Baird and Kaufmann 1997)
In addition to these aspects of change, there were the four elements - earth, fire, water, and air. The Scholastics held that the most basic units of existence were substances composed of various mixtures of these four basic elements (Franklin)
In viewing these goals, one can also understand how these goals can be achieved and maintained in the long run through the application of Descartes' thinking and with positive thinking as a whole. Researchers note that an individual's psychological capital (a core factor consisting of hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience) was related to their positive emotions, that in turn were related to their attitudes and behaviors (Avey, Luthans and Wernsing, 2008, p