The legacy of Rene Descartes remains unparalleled and his philosophical musings concerning the dream are likely to remain undying. Descartes used the dream as a means to question the world around him, notably as part of his quest for knowledge and absolute certainty in a sea of uncertainty. As a result, it would be difficult to overstate the contribution to the exploration of dreams that are attributed to Descartes.
Of course, any meaningful exploration of Descartes and his dreams must begin with his Meditations on First Philosophy– a work intended to present critical evaluation of matters ranging from the nature of truth to the role of the body. Within this context, Descartes believes he is able to demonstrate the veracity of science and establish a reliable and lasting foundation upon which future scholars might build.
To begin with, Descartes believed that in order to garner trust in the wake of his studies he must compartmentalize his understanding of dream experiences. Accordingly, Descartes separated dream experiences into two distinct categories, namely ‘fantasy’ and ‘evidence based’, thus ensuring insight into individual dream experiences presented within either category was isolated and not conflated with competing evidence based dream experiences. Under this model, dreamers can be reasonably confident of the veracity of an experience if it fell under the ‘evidence based’ category; dreamers experiencing an ‘fantasy’ dream however, were cautioned to take the dream’s veracity cautiously or even to discard it wholesale.
In the interest of furthering his efforts towards discerning the veracity of dream experiences, Descartes also considered the content of individual dream experiences. To try and deduce which dream experiences should hold value and as a result represent themselves as reliable sources of knowledge or belief, Descartes suggested that dream experiences should be evaluated on a number of criteria. For example, certain dream experiences could receive further inspection and subsequent consideration of veracity if they contained “something which could be thought of as reasoning” or “a remarkable intelligence” . It was only by closely following such a schema that Descartes was able to suggest which dream experiences should be given serious consideration.
Though Descartes insistence on engaging with dreams in an additive yet efficient manner likely cast him ahead of peers such as Aristotle when it comes to dreams, there still remained one obstacle in his path. That is, neither Descartes nor “anyone else [was] capable of ascertaining the veracity of such dreams”. This dilemma would haunt Descartes until his death in 1650. Still, it must be remembered that though Descartes’ ultimate dream quest – that is, to uncover some hard and fast truths regarding the scope of dream experiences – was ultimately unsuccessful, his journey towards the ultimate truth nonetheless resulted in the developmet of a framework for assessing dream experiences for veracity and reality that has since become the gold standard for modern day dream theorists.
Descartes’ reflections on dreams and their veracity close in a note of consideration and respect for their value. Standing on the shoulder of giants, we too should consider what Descartes ultimately deemed so important; that is, we must remember to give adequate consideration and respect to dream experiences as areas of exploration in our own journeys towards enlightenment.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now