Descartes did not believe that the information we receive through our senses is necessarily accurate. Descartes undertook his own rebirth in society. He cleaned himself by throwing out everything he knew and sorting out every thought.
Through this cleansing and reconstruction of this thoughts, Descartes felt it would be a waste of time to tear down each idea one by one so he attacked it by importance: "the idea that sense perception conveys accurate information."
In his Dream argument, Descartes argues that he often dreams of things that seem real to him while he is asleep. In his realitity vs. concious, he provides an example where he feels the fire and how it doesn’t really allow him to tell when he is awake and when he is dreaming in perception and view.
He also proposed that scientific observation had to be an interpretive act requiring careful monitoring.
In Rules for the "Direction of the Mind", Descartes argues that all problems should be broken up into their simplest parts and that problems can be expressed as abstract equations.
This point led to express mathematics and algebra in geometric forms and simply to symbols and signs. Lastly, he developed a method to understanding the properties of objects by simplifying their shapes to formula and approaching them through reason rather then sense.
Important points:
1. Descartes' conviction that sensation and imagination are not reliable sources of knowledge. Only understanding or reason can be trusted.
2. Free will
3."If we saw clearly that it is bad, we could not possibly sin -- not so long as we did see it in this way"
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