Opposing Descartes: Proving the Existence of Hands

OPPOSING DESCARTES: PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF HANDS

Do I have hands? This question seems to follow with: do I have a body? If I do, then how do I know that I have them? It is my belief that I indeed do have hands (two to be exact), the very ones I am using to type. To best argue my point I will refute the argument made by Descartes in Meditation I, that I may only be dreaming and do not know for sure that I have hands. Once I have shown reason to doubt Descartes' dreaming idea, I will show that I can know that I have hands.

Descartes says that on many occasions he has been deceived by illusions in his sleep; he believed himself to be awake and found that he was merely in a dream state. Because of this, he claims, there are no distinguishing marks for when we are asleep and when we are awake; that we cannot know at any moment if we are truly awake or not. Images and actions within our dreams are identical to those in the waking world, as if painted in our minds. As a result we may see our hands and our bodies in front of us, but we cannot know if they are there, or exist at all, if we do not know that we're awake. This proof summarizes Descartes' arguments:

(1) We cannot know if we are awake or dreaming because our dreams seem as reality.

(2) If we don't know if we're awake, we can't be sure of what exists.

Ð'©) I cannot know if I have hands.

The dreaming argument presented by Descartes appears to be valid. Still, even he ends up disregarding it throughout the Meditations. It is merely a starting point for him on his quest for finding true knowledge. My first objection to the argument would be to say, Ð''I know that I'm not dreaming; I'm awake." However, this argument begs the questionÐ'-I may be dreaming I'm not dreaming. To clarify, I feel that I can just say that I know I'm awake because my mind and body tell me that I am. The things around me are very real and I cannot imagine being asleep at this moment. The argument following, I may be dreaming I'm not dreaming, argues that I may be in a dream that is deceiving me into thinking it is not a dream. In order to justify my first argument, I know I'm awake, we need to establish a way to distinguish dreaming from waking. This is where my second argument comes in.

There are certain mental faculties which are unique to being awake. If I am analyzing, drawing conclusions, questioning and making connections then I am not asleep. These listed are characteristics of being awake and cannot be facilitated while dreaming. Descartes agrees that minds don't work as well when we're asleep. Therefore, these higher qualities of thinking are available to us only while we are awake. They can then help us determine the dreaming world from reality. If we're performing any of these tasks then we know that we are awake. Also, if we attempt any of these tasks and are successful then, equally, we are awake. So now we have a way of determining the dreaming world from the waking one. To follow this comes a very similar argument.

At this moment I am thinking and I am consciously aware that I am thinking. If I were dreaming, I would not be consciously aware of my thinking. Dreams themselves are thoughts; they occur entirely within our minds. Therefore, while dreaming we do not think in the conventional sense which we do when we are awake. In dreams our thoughts compose our dreams and become our dreams. So, I can be sure that if I am thinking, and know that I am thinking, then I must be awake and not dreaming. This provides us with another way of determining whether we are awake or asleep at any given time. Now that I have developed a criterion for determining whether I am dreaming or awake, I will attempt to use it to prove that I do indeed have hands; that these two objects before me are hands and do exist.

As Descartes states in his First Mediation, dreams are fashioned to the likeness of real things. Even in dreams the general objects exist somewhere in reality (he is referring to objects such as hands, eyes, heads and the body as a whole). So even if I am dreaming, whether I know that I am or not, and look down to see my hands there in front of me, I can be certain that they exist. When I wake up, if I ever do, I can be sure that the two hands I saw in my dream will still be there and will be the same. This is the same for the rest of my body as well.

The first proof I will use to show that my hands do exist comes from Moore's Proof of an External World.

(1) Here is one hand

(2) Here is another

Ð'©) I have at least two human hands

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