Examining The Meditations (Part 4): Illusion And Reality

Entries in this series:

Examining The Meditations (Part 1): The Religion Of Descartes --https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/examining-meditations-part-1-religion.html

Examining The Meditations (Part 2): Cartesian Doubt --https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/examining-meditations-part-2-cartesian.html

Examining The Meditations (Part 3): Descent Into Skepticism --https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/08/examining-meditations-part-3-descent.html

Examining The Meditations (Part 4): Illusion And Reality


In The Ramifications Of Skepticism, the third part in this series, I left off after bringing attention to Descartes' claim that no sure way to distinguish being awake from dreaming exists.  Continuing his thoughts about dreams, he eventually considers his renowned evil demon hypothesis.  I want to say up front that for all his rationality in certain areas, Meditations on First Philosophy does not always acknowledge the full range of what can be known with absolute certainty.  Thus, I will occasionally point out some statements of Descartes which are self-defeating or provably false.


"Nonetheless, it must surely be admitted that the visions which come in sleep are like paintings, which must have been fashioned in the likeness of things that are real . . . For even when painters try to create sirens and satyrs with the most extraordinary bodies, they cannot give them natures which are new in all respects; they simply jumble up the limbs of different animals." (13)


Illusion cannot exist unless it deviates from reality.  Otherwise, it would itself be reality!  And it is impossible for there to not be a way reality is, as then the way reality is would be that there is no way reality is--a self-refuting impossibility.  And so Descartes sees that even his perceptions, whether or not they originate from dreams or actual external objects, must contain some hint of reality in some form.  He then realizes that he has to continue breaking down his observations into smaller categories to find foundational truth, for "composite" beliefs, beliefs comprised of a combination of other beliefs, remain uncertain until one examines the very foundations they rest upon.


"So a reasonable conclusion from this might be that physics, astronomy, medicine, and all other disciplines which depend on the study of composite things, are doubtful; while arithmetic, geometry and other subjects of this kind, which deal only with the simplest and most general things, regardless of whether they really exist in nature or not, contain something certain and indubitable.  For whether I am awake or asleep, two and three added together are five, and a square has no more than four sides."  (14)


Even here, Descartes practices the Cartesian rationalist methodology of breaking perceptions down into what must be true.  To know something about a subject, one must understand its foundations, for no one can understand information that rests atop other information unless one understands the facts it rests upon.  The core of reality is still knowable regardless of dreaming, as Descartes hints at: "whether I am awake or asleep, two and three added together are five", and I still have a mind, thoughts, perceptions, and a grasp of reason and my own consciousness, things that cannot be illusions.  Yet Descartes suddenly doubts what he only just recognized as true by necessity:


"And yet firmly believe rooted in my mind is the long-standing opinion that there is an omnipotent God who made me the kind of creature that I am.  How do I know that God has not brought it about that there is no earth, no sky, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, while at the same time ensuring that all these things appear to me to exist just as they do now? . . . how do I know that God has not brought it about that I too go wrong every time I add two and three or count the sides of a square, or in some even simpler matter, if that is imaginable?" (14)


Despite his rationalism, Descartes does not always say or claim to believe rational things in his Meditations.  In the case of the quote above, after just explaining that whether he dreams or is awake mathematical truths remain fixed, certain, and knowable, he hypothesizes that perhaps God deceives him about mathematical truths.  He does not explain here that although one could be confused about what to call various numbers or equations, what he calls two added to what he calls three must by logical necessity equal what he calls five.  God could at most manipulate his perception of the titles, not mathematical truths themselves.  At most, the names he assigns to numbers can be illusions, while mathematics itself, a numeric extension of logic, cannot be false.

And then comes one of the most well-known parts of Meditations:


"I will suppose therefore that . . . some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.  I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds, and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgment.  I shall consider myself as not having hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as falsely believing that I have all these things." (15)


He does not know if such a demon exists; he uses the scenario as a way to doubt the truth of his sensory perceptions, even doubting that he has any physical body at all.  But it is impossible for anyone with sensory perceptions to not have senses, as no one's senses or sensory perceptions can be unreliable unless one has senses to begin with!  My senses may not perceive reality as it is, but the fact that I have senses cannot be false!  He also doubts the existence of any external material world whatsoever, yet, as with other things like how to distinguish dreaming from being awake (as promised), I will show how certain knowledge that some sort of external world exists is possible, although its exact appearance remains uncertain.  Descartes then resolves to do at least what remains in his power and describes how he feels his new mental condition is comparable to a longing for an illusion to remain unshattered:


"I shall stubbornly and firmly persist in this meditation; and, even if it is not in my power to know any truth, I shall at least do what is in my power, that is, resolutely guard against assenting to any falsehoods . . . I am like a prisoner who is enjoying an imaginary freedom while asleep; as he begins to suspect that he is asleep, he dreads being woken up, and goes along with the pleasant illusion as long as he can." (15)



It is impossible for no truths to be knowable; why Descartes didn't elaborate on the infallibility and perfect knowability of first principles (the laws of logic and what follows from them) and axioms (necessary truths which, when denied, must be relied upon to deny them), I do not know.  His later revelation that he can know for sure that his mind exists is only possible because other things can be known with absolute certainty as well (that truth exists, that deductive reasoning/logic is reliable, that something is what it is and is not what it is not, that some knowledge is possible, etc), but he never brings this up to my recollection.

For instance, it is absolutely impossible for nothing to be true (if no truth exists, it is true that no truth exists, and thus something is true by necessity), yet he implies in the above quote that he does not yet think it is in his power to know any truths.  Yet if he did not know any truths, he could not realize that he has no way to know if his senses perceive reality correctly, that it is possible that a demon deceives his mind with false perceptions, or that it is true that he does not yet believe he has discovered any truths!  Also, if he did not grasp reason, which is infallibly true when used properly (without fallacies or leaps), he would be unable to realize anything at all.  To doubt or argue against reason one must use reason, proving that it is absolutely certain either way.  Reason cannot be false.  Thus, even before Descartes acknowledges that he knows for sure that he exists, he has already relied on other things knowable with absolute certainty, he just has not drawn attention to them in this way.

As Descartes will soon acknowledge in his second meditation, at least some truths are knowable.  Illusion can only exist as a deviation from reality, and thus the very existence of any illusion proves at least that reality exists and that the illusion does too.  Soon, Descartes will begin distinguishing what cannot be illusion from what may be illusory.  Descartes also hints at knowledge of his own free will here--the ability to make at least some choices uncoerced in his thoughts.  He doesn't develop the idea much, but readers can see through logic that if he truly has the power to refrain from mentally assenting to false beliefs and embrace beliefs, then he has at least some freedom of the will, something that all beings which can truly reason possess [1].  Again, I find it odd that Descartes leaves so much about first principles and logic unsaid, but that does not affect the innate veracity of them.


Summary of observations:
1. Any perception involves some element of reality, even if only that the perception itself is real, even if the thing perceived is an illusion.  Illusion cannot exist except as a deviation from objective reality.
2. Whether or not I am dreaming, whether or not I am awake, the core of reality, consisting of necessary truths, still remains fixed.
3. It is impossible for a conscious, thinking being to not know any objective truths, but by the end of his first meditation Descartes, fearful of any fallacious misstep, has not yet re-acknowledged this.


Meditations on First Philosophy with Selections from the Objections and Replies.  Descartes, Rene.  Ed. Cottingham, John.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.  Print.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/reason-refutes-determinism.html