Descartes (1641) is one of the most renowned and influential European philosophers of the Early Modern period. He belonged to the school of rationalism – a line of philosophic thinking that argues that true knowledge can only be obtained through pure reason rather than sensory experience (Ezebuilo, 2020). In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes (1641) makes a remark crucial to his rationalist argument by proclaiming that a person – including himself – can reasonably doubt that his or her body belongs to them. This statement, however puzzling it may seem at first, is central to understanding Cartesian rationalism.
At first sight, the idea of doubting the existence of one’s body may seem entirely nonsensical. Not only are people aware of them every moment of their lives, but awareness of one’s body differs from awareness of any other physical object because people feel it “from the inside” (Chamberlain, 2019, p. 3). However, this is precisely the point that Descartes (1641) wants to make: even an experience as fundamental as having a body may be deceiving. To understand this point, one must take a look at his Evil Demon thought experiment. Suppose, says Descartes (1641), that a malicious supernatural entity holds a person enthralled and instills them with imaginary experiences for sick amusement. If that were the case, the person could not be sure that any of his or her experiences were real. Since there is no way to be certain that the Demon does not exist, one cannot escape the possibility that bodily experiences may not correspond to reality – and, hence, cannot serve as a foundation for knowledge. Thus, the philosopher says that he can doubt that his body belongs to him to illustrate his Evil Demon experiment.
Apart from being quite philosophically ingenious, this thought experiment can raise more than one question. If experiences cannot serve as a basis for objective knowledge, then what can? If it is the reason, as Descartes and other rationalist philosophers would argue – then how can one be sure that the idea of doubting and reasoning is not inspired by the Evil Demon either? And, at the end of it all, is it even possible to disprove philosophical skepticism – that is, the belief that no true and objective knowledge is possible?
References
Chamberlain, C. (2019). “The body I call ‘mine’ ”: A sense of bodily ownership in Descartes. European Journal of Philosophy, 27(1), 3-24.
Descartes, R. (1641). Meditations on first philosophy. Web.
Ezebuilo, H. C. (2020). Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza: A brief survey of rationalism. AMAMIHE: Journal of Applied Philosophy, 18(6), 95-118.