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Med 1

Med 1

Q In the first Meditation, Descartes raised doubts about human experience and the appeal to authority to provide a foundation of belief. The first is the Dream Argument; the second is the Evil Demon Argument. What do you make of these arguments? Are they convincing or of no consequence?

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Skepticism was central to the purpose of challenging absolutism and authoritarianism in the name of religion. Rene Descartes in his seminal work – Meditations; argued for the need of raising doubts with regard to religious authoritarianism which has been justified, since times immemorial, in the name of faith in an omnipotent and omnipresent God. However, Descartes argued that for obedience to be true, one should be certain that their belief is directed towards the real God which presupposes the need to distinguish between the devil and the deity. This is not very simple because there is no set guideline by which the demarcation can be made especially in situations when both the Satan and the God claim unquestioned obedience.