Descarte 2
Descarte 2How can we know if we are a brain in a vat? Can we be sure that we are not the playthings of evil demons? These questions have been discussed by many philosophers in the past and still we do not have a proof that we are not some demon�s plaything. Yet, at least two prominent philosophers, Ren� Descartes and John Locke believed there are ways to prove that we are not brains in vats.
At one point in his philosophy, Descartes reflected that perhaps God or some evil spirit was constantly tricking his mind, causing him to believe what was false. Descartes then responded to this argument by beginning with the observation that even if he were dreaming, or constantly deceived, he could at least be certain that he had thoughts, and therefore existed as a thinking being. If an individual has an idea, then that individual would understand it and assent to its content. If, as Descartes claimed, I am born with the idea of God, who embedded that idea in me at my creation, then my understanding of what God is should conform to that idea. Thus he wrote, the idea must be a "clear and distinct" perception of the mind. Nothing could make him doubt it. Furthermore, in Discourse on the method, Descartes introduced the famous Latin phrase �cogito ergo sum�, which means �I think, therefore I am.� Descartes then argued that �cogito ergo sum� has passed the test for �method of doubt � because he can not be mistaken in his beliefs about the way things seem to him. Descartes held that by means of reason alone, certain universal, self-evident truths could be discovered, from which the remaining content of philosophy and the sciences could be deductively derived. Descartes therefore believed that his knowledge exist.
Descartes then tried to prove the existence of God which will help him in proving knowledge. He thought that the representative power that a finite thinking object has in creating mental pictures of things that is more perfect than itself cannot come from itself; it must somehow be derived from something at least as perfect as the objects represented by the thinking thing. It follows that the representative capacity that finite thinking substances, like ourselves, have in making a representation of an infinitely perfect being would ultimately have been derived only from an infinitely perfect being. Therefore, from the fact that finite beings can frame the idea of an infinitely perfect being then it can be inferred that an infinitely perfect being or God must exist.
Here is the argument that Descartes gave:
(1) I�m able to form image which is more perfect than myself and therefore it must be derived from something at least as perfect as the image that I had formed.
(2) The perfect image that I formed must be from the most perfect being.
Therefore, God must...
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