Thursday, October 21, 2004

Cartesian Skepticism

I'm currently trying to write a paper on Cartesian Skepticism for my honors colloquium class.

In a nutshell, Cartesian Skepticism basically questions knowledge, which leads to a questioning of reality, which leads to a questioning of existence. Here's what the Dictionary of Philosopy of Mind says about it:
"Any of a class of skeptical views against empirical knowledge based on the claim that claims to empirical knowledge are defeated by the possibility that we might be deceived insofar as we might be, for example, dreaming, hallucinating, deceived by demons, or brains in vats."

From what I understood -- which is sadly, not a lot -- there is nothing definite about anything in this world, because you never know whether we're real or living in The Matrix (which I should definitely watch soon, by the way).

So right now, I'm sitting here trying to create some logic out of this logic. Judging by this Cartesian belief, I might not even be here. What I'm doing right now might not be reality. I'm quite possibly dreaming, and maybe this homework doesn't even exist. So why should I do it? If I do it and get a good grade, when I wake up from this very vivid dream (just because it's "vivid" doesn't mean it's real. There are very few instances where you're dreaming and you know it. Mostly, when you dream, in your dream, you think what goes on is reality) I would just be disappointed that the rare A I received was not real. On the other hand, if I don't do it and fail, it'll be a nightmare, and I would surely be relieved when I wake up.

It's like when I was a little girl. One of my classmates had a really, really nice backpack and some kind of awesome toy. I was totally jealous and wished I was her. At some point, I considered the possiblity that I was just living in the longest dream in the world and any moment now, I will wake up as her -- with the cute backpack and toy, and live happily ever after.

Also when I was little, I briefly considered the fact that maybe I'm the only real person in this world. I'm the only one with the real soul and an actual working mind. How would I know if other people are real, too? I don't know what they think or feel. Do they even think or feel?

As silly as these sound, it's totally true.

However, should you take my word for it that it's actually true? Whether I'm actually telling the truth, nobody will ever know. I can't justify it just by telling you, and I can't present solid facts that would do so. Besides, even if I can prove it, how would you know if it is true? I mean, this might not even be real. It could be just a dream.

And now my head hurts.

Anyway, in all seriousness, if I write this on my paper, would I actually get a grade?

3 Comments:

At 12:52 AM, Blogger karen said...

i remember in 1st grade, i thought everyone was a robot except me and that i was in a dream.

i didn't realize that it was a phase kids go through. i thought i was weird, but it turns out at least the 2 of us are. i'm so relieved. hehe.

i totally think you should use the premise you wrote on here for your paper. in fact, you should just print your blog and turn it in.

 
At 10:41 AM, Blogger Life said...

Er, I kinda did. I just re-worded everything and made it 3 pages long. Hehe.

 
At 1:25 AM, Blogger karen said...

bs-ing is such a great skill, ain't it?

 

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