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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Descartes' formulation of the dreaming argument is not self-refuting.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.The dreaming argument requires Descartes to judge that past experiences were dreams, but such judgment itself presupposes the waking rational faculty he claims to doubt.
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    • 2.Norman Malcolm argued in 'Dreaming' (1959) that dream reports are logically parasitic on waking language, making the very concept of 'dreaming while asleep' unintelligible without waking certainty.
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    • 3.If the conceptual framework distinguishing dreams from waking is itself undermined, Descartes cannot coherently formulate the premise that he 'sometimes dreams' without self-defeat.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.The supporting argument conflates psychological occurrence (thinking of experiences as dreams) with the logical conditions required to meaningfully deploy the dream/waking distinction.
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    • 2.Wittgenstein's private language argument implies that dream-talk derives its meaning from public, waking criteria, so invoking dreams as a skeptical tool smuggles in the very certainties it purports to dissolve.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Descartes' formulation presupposes only that we do in fact make a distinction between dreaming and waking, not that we make it reliably.
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    • 2.Descartes states the relevant premise in terms of what we think of as dreams versus what we think of as waking: every sensory experience he thought he was having while awake he can also think of himself as sometimes having while asleep.
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    • 3.This formulation is compatible with the conclusion that we cannot reliably distinguish dreams and waking.
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