Knowledge, a
word I’ve been taking for granted for as long as I can remember. What is
knowledge? What does it mean to know for that matter? Descartes challenged my
understanding of knowledge, challenged one of the most intrinsic elements of my
life. I don’t appreciate how this dead
guy could just walk into my life, make a mess of my beliefs and leave without
any answers. Anyway, Descartes asserts that all of us – every single human
being – know nothing. Just like Jon Snow.
Descartes
asserts that we cannot know anything with absolute certainty if it can be
doubted. Right off the bat that argument already disproves most of the things I
know. For example, I can argue that the sky is blue in color. Most humans would
agree with me but would you believe that the human eye only has three
color-receptive cones namely: Red, Green and Blue? Basically with these color
receptors in our eyes, we can already perceive all the colors in the color
wheel. Dogs have two color receptors, explaining why they can only see in black
or white. Mantis Shrimps have 16 color receptors in their eyes. That’s 13
different spectra we cannot even begin to comprehend. So that brings doubt into
my argument that the sky is blue because what if in fact, the sky is of a color
our eyes cannot fully perceive? We can never know for sure. Damn you Descartes.
Ok, now let’s
move away from visual perception. I can sense air and wind, those things must
be real! Well, Descartes once again rains on my parade. He brings up his dream argument;
he states that our dreams have the capacity to be so vivid and so lifelike that
we can even experience sensations from our senses while we’re asleep. I’ve certainly
experienced that. So he then asserts that if a dream can be so
indistinguishable from reality to the point that even our senses can be fooled,
who’s to say that we aren’t just playing out an extremely vivid dream right
now? Right there, he disproves every single piece of knowledge I have that I
can justify with my senses. You’re a buzz kill, you know that Descartes?
So what does
Descartes leave me with? Absolutely nothing! I can’t justify anything I can
perceive or experience because my senses – the primary faculties by which I
interact with the world – can fool me and are therefore unreliable. It’s a
joyless epiphany. To realize that the world I thought I knew could in fact just
be an illusion or a construct of my subconscious mind.
Descartes does
however give us a consolation. Instead of fixating on the external world and
our perception of it, he tells us to look internally; within the recesses of
our mind and consciousness. There he found the one thing he could not doubt:
his own existence. It’s a bit narcissistic and individualistic if you ask me
cause that argument states that in this world full of false perceptions and
illusions, the only thing I can know to be true is my own existence? That
everyone I cherish and hold dear could quite possibly just be fractions of my
own psyche given form? What a sad and lonely outlook. Regardless, I will continue to live
my life to the fullest even if this is all just an illusion or a projection cause
this is the life I’ve always known so why not enjoy every minute of it?
Besides, I might one day wake up from this lifelike dream and discover that I’m
actually an omnipotent god having a nice nap! Or a brain in a jar! Or a man-wolf hybrid holding up a shark while fighting off alien invaders!
