Descartes Metaphysical Philosophy: Exploring Doubt, Dreams, and the Existence of God

Abstract

Instructor’s Name Metaphysics is a type of philosophy that deals with the study of reality and existence. Realists will ask how the world exists, its origin, and the source of creation. Descartes’s meditations are explicated as a form of metaphysical philosophy that answers important questions on nature, reality, and existence. He had an interest in math, science, religion, and medicine which constitutes metaphysics. Descartes was the first philosopher to question the certainty of our claims on what surrounds us in the world (Descartes, 2008). Humans can never be certain and the possibility of doubt can never be ruled out. In explaining his ideologies, Descartes uses the literary forms of empiricism, existentialism, and essentialism to defend his ideologies. Descartes employs three stages of skepticism in his meditations which include the demo deceiver, sensory illusions, and dreams. He believes that his source of knowledge is his senses. However, he believes that senses can lie sometimes. Eyes cannot lie to us about our surroundings but smell and feeling can. Descartes believes that his senses have lied to him before and he rejects all sensory beliefs. Any source of knowledge that is deceptive, Descartes extrapolates that it could always be deceptive. The possibility of doubt in our senses proves that we can never trust anything we learn through our senses. Using the wax argument, he believes that sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste determine the color, size, and shape of the wax (Adams, 2014). Unfortunately, when the wax is put on the fireplace, it melts and changes its physical and chemical properties which senses fail to explain. This aspect explains the metaphysical science in Descartes’s philosophy. Descartes’ perception of dreams extrapolates that we can never trust the content of our consciousness. He believes that dreams are a form of imagination which makes them untrustworthy. Imagination provides ideals that are not real which disqualifies it as a factor used to determine thinking. Descartes cites God as the center pole of his metaphysics. He imagines a malicious demon with the utmost power and very cunning to deceive him. The malicious demon deceives humans of the existence of the world. The demon has deceptive power which makes basic truth uncertain, for instance, God’s existence. Descartes uses the malicious demon to prove that God is the key element in humanity. God is innate, good, and a perfect entity. Descartes concludes that there is a God but the God is not a deceiver (malicious demon). Through skepticism, Descartes tries to understand the essence and realities of humanity. In his first meditation, Descartes describes the phenomenon of “What Can Be Called into Doubt.” The meditator reflects on his beliefs that he put in doubt. he believes that for a long time, he has been entangled in professing falsehood in his beliefs....