What is Descartes’ Dream Argument and Evil Demon argument and how do the two differ on what we can be skeptical about?Provide one response to the skepticism raised in Descartes’ Meditations.In addressing this prompt, you can and should use the reading from Descartes as well as any other content provided in this unit (e.g. videos, my own presentation of the content). Additional sources are unnecessary and highly not recommended.Purpose of Assignment-demonstrate a clear, in-depth understanding of the content through accurate and concise writing; andengage with the text through appropriate quoting and citation (any major citation format is acceptable, e.g. APA, MLA).-Given the purposes of this assignment, it is important that you provide clear definitions of key terms, explain concepts and theories in detail and with examples when helpful, and demonstrate your understanding by providing these explanations in your own words whenever possible (instead of quoting).-My recommendation is to demonstrate your understanding of the reading through selective quoting (in other words, keep quoting to a minimum) and when quoting, be sure to explain what the quote means and how it connects to the rest of the discussion.Submission Guidelines1 inch margins, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font (Be sure to check these formatting guidelines as these may not be the default setting on your word processor).Paper must be at least two full pages and must not be longer than three full pages. Any papers that do not meet the minimum page requirement will be penalized, and anything written beyond the third page will not be read.Upload your paper in Word or PDF format (doc, docx, pdf). Other formats (e.g. Pages) will not be accepted.Your paper will be run through the plagiarism detection program. I take academic integrity very seriously as a matter of fairness to all PCC students, and though in many cases, students unknowingly violate the academic integrity policy, you will still be held responsible for making sure your work complies with those policies.Citation for this paper:You need to have a complete citation somewhere, with the author’s name, book title, publication year, edition (if applicable), etc. There are usually two common ways to do so: as footnotes or as a works cited page. You can use whichever format you feel more comfortable with.Additionally, you need to cite specific page numbers (in footnotes or in parentheses) anytime you present another person’s ideas, even if you are presenting them in your own words. For example, if you are summarizing a philosopher’s argument, you need to cite the specific page of the source in which this argument appears so that readers know exactly where to go to find the information you are using. Citing is not just for quoting; you must cite even when you paraphrase. Simply mentioning the author’s name or the title of the work is not enough.Insight into Descartes Dream Argument:Suppose at this moment, you are sitting at your desk, in front of a laptop, writing a paper for this class. Are you sure you’re not dreaming at this very moment? Haven’t you had a dream at some point that was so vivid that you were actually experiencing everything in that dream, only to find out otherwise once you’ve awoken?According to Descartes, he has no way to distinguish based on his sensory experience whether he is dreaming or is awake at this very moment, since both experiences are more or less the same. Unfortunately, if he does not know whether he’s dreaming or awake, then he will also not know with certainty that there is really a desk in front of him, since it could be true that he’s actually asleep in bed in a room without a desk merely dreaming that there is a desk in front of him.Another way to formulate Descartes’ argument is the following:If I know some proposition (claim about the world, like “There is a desk in front of me”), then I know that I am not merely dreaming that proposition.However, I do not know that I am not merely dreaming that proposition (since I cannot distinguish between my dream state and awake state).Therefore, I do not know this proposition.It seems that we can insert any proposition about the world that does not rely on our being awake as opposed to dreaming, which means in the least any claims arising from our sensory experience. However, according to Descartes, certain beliefs are not under doubt as a result of this argument because certain beliefs are not dependent on whether you’re awake or dreaming. For instance, “2+3=5” is a claim that you can know with certainty even if you’re dreaming since the truth of this proposition depends solely on the concepts “2”, “3”, “5”, “+” and “=”, which you either comprehend or don’t in your dream or awake state.Insight into Descartes Evil Demon Argument:To press his method of doubt even further, Descartes then considers the possibility of an evil demon deceiving him into believing certain claims to be true when they are in fact false. The key in this argument, like the Dream Argument, is that there is no way to know whether or not there is an evil demon deceiving me (in the Dream Argument, we did not know whether we were awake or dreaming). The argument follows in a similar pattern to the Dream Argument:If I know some proposition (claim about the world, like “There is a desk in front of me”), then I know that there is not an evil demon deceiving me (making me believe this proposition to be true when it is actually false).However, I do not know that there is an evil demon deceiving me.Therefore, I do not know this proposition.The Evil Demon Argument, then, relies on the fact that there is no way to know whether or not there is an evil demon deceiving us to raise doubt about all our beliefs that may be a product of this evil demon’s deception. Unlike the Dream Argument, what can be doubted extends beyond our sensory experiences. In theory, this evil demon can make us falsely believe arithmetic claims, like “2+3=4,” claims that we did not doubt as a result of the Dream Argument.Other sources for this paper:https://youtu.be/PqjdRAERWLchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xehTcQeqDWshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKyPeDYh8w
