The Move from Doubt to Certainty; A Look at the Theories of Descartes and Locke Descartes is interested in the certainty of his existence and the existence of other people and things. Descartes’ beliefs vary from those of Socrates. Descartesargues that knowledge is acquired through awareness andexperience. Using this approach, Descartes moves throughdoubt to certainty of his existence. He asks himselfvarious questions about the certainty of his existence andsolves them through clear thought and logic. Using thismethod Descartes establishes doubts to be truths and by theend of the book, he has established that he does indeedexist. In this paper, I will show how Descartes movesthrough doubt to certainty. I will explain how Descartesuses the cogito, proves the existence of God and what thatmeans to his existence. I will also discuss the generalrules of truth that Descartes establishes.In the First Meditation Descartes begins to examinewhat is certain and what is doubtful. Descartes wants toestablish that his knowledge is certain and not doubtful. He states,...I had accepted many false opinions as beingtrue, and that what I had based on such insecureprinciples could only be most doubtful anduncertain; so that I had to undertake seriouslyonce in my life to rid myself of all opinions Ihad adopted up to then, and to begin, and to beginafresh from the foundations, if I wished toestablish something firm and constant in thesciences.(Descartes 95)By this Descartes means that he wishes to establish afoundation for his knowledge based on certainty instead ofdoubt. Descartes first looks at the senses. This isimportant because the senses are the first thing to causedoubt. He focuses on the perception of things. He says thatthings far from him, in the distance, give him reason todoubt their certainty, while things that are close to himare indubitable and he is clear about their certainty. However, Descartes realizes that dreams pose a...
