“ I have accepted as most true and certain I have learned either form the senses or through senses; but it is sometime proved to me that these senses are deceptive, and it is wiser not to trust entirely to anything by which we have once been deceived”
Descartes believes that knowledge comes from within the mind. While seeking true knowledge,
Descartes writes his Meditations. In these meditations, Descartes tries to develop a strong
foundation, which all knowledge can be built upon. Descartes begins developing this foundation
through the method of doubt. He casts doubt upon all his previous beliefs. Once Descartes clears
away all beliefs that can be called into doubt, he can then build a strong base for all true
knowledge to stand upon. In his first meditation, Descartes attempts to understand and find a
way of dealing with the nature of doubt and the role that doubt has to play in his beliefs and his
belief system. Descartes attacks all his previous beliefs by going to the root of their origin, the
senses and intellect. Descartes claims that any knowledge that he had acquired had been either
from the senses or through the senses. Descartes starts the first argument by attacking the very
basis of his beliefs, human senses. He goes on to point out however, that the senses cannot
always be trusted and it is perhaps from here that the problem of doubt arises. People learn their
beliefs through their external and internal senses. By means of the five external senses -- sight,
sound, touch, taste, smell-- you learn various ideas about the world around you. Yet, how
reliable are these external senses, these sources of beliefs? He first examines those beliefs that
require our senses. He questions, whether our senses are true indicators of what they represent.
By inspecting our sometimes firm belief in the reality of dreams, he comes to the conclusion
that our senses are prone to error and...