On Wittgenstein's Certainty and Critics of Descartes’ “Dreaming Argument”
Subject Areas : Epistemological researchesAezam Mohseni 1 , Seyyed Maseoud Sayf 2
1 - PhD candidate at Imam Khomeini international university, Qazvin
2 - Associate professor of philosophy department, Imam Khomeini international university,
Keywords: Skepticism, Descartes, Wittgenstein, Dreaming Argument, Metaphysical Certainty, objective Certainty, subjective Certainty,
Abstract :
Wittgenstein frankly is speaking on certainty as a basic term which precedes skepticism believing that doubt game is possible in certainty ground, and we have no ground except certainty, extremist skepticism is self contradiction. Wittgenstein claims that Descartes' “Dreaming Argument” is the deepest and most powerful form of skepticism; in the first Meditation, Descartes is able to infect himself, as it were, with a profound skeptical difficulty about perceptual knowledge: what he calls "the principal reason for doubt, namely my inability to distinguish between being asleep and being awake". From past to the present, the attempts to neutralize such threats have been largely regarded as unsuccessful. But the writings of Wittgenstein mark a new development in defusing this deflationary posture. Unlike most philosophers who have assumed that Skepticism represents a coherent position that demands a responsible rebuttal, Wittgenstein emphasized that it was senseless, and required no formal refutation. In this paper we seek to demonstrate that Descartes' purpose has never been to remain uncertain; he always tries to overcome doubt and he wants to come to a certainty; In the case of “Dreaming Argument” ultimately in the sixth Meditation Descartes is prepared to solve and dismiss this very same difficulty in a mere paragraph; here we told that "the exaggerated doubts of the last few days should be dismissed as laughable". He writes that there is a vast difference between being asleep and being awake.
1- حجت، مینو.(1387). بیدلیلی باور: تأملی در باب یقین ویتگنشتاین، تهران، هرمس.
2- دکارت، رنه.(1385). تأملات در فلسفهی اولی، ترجمهی احمد احمدی، چاپ ششم، تهران، مرکز نشر دانشگاهی.
3- دکارت، رنه.(1364). اصول فلسفه، ترجمهی منوچهر صانعی، چاپ اول، تهران، انتشارات آگاه.
4- کاتینگم، جان.(1393). دکارت، ترجمهی سید مصطفی شهرآیینی، تهران، نشر نی.
5- ویتگنشتاین، لودویگ.(1369). رسالهی منطقی ـ فلسفی، ترجمهی محمود عبادیان، چاپ اول، تهران، انتشارات جهاد دانشگاهی دانشگاه تهران.
6- ویتگنشتاین، لودیگ.(1384). برگهها، ترجمهی مالک حسینی، تهران، هرمس.
7. Austin, J. L. (1962), Sense and Sensibilia, ed. G.J. Warnock, London, Oxford University Press.
8. Coliva, Annalisa (2010), Moore and Wittgenstein: Scepticism, Certainty and Common Sense, New York, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.
9. Descartes, Rene (1984), The philosophical Writings of Descartes (Volume II), Translated by JOHN COTTINGHAM; ROBERT STOOTHOFF; DUGALD MURDOCH, New York, Cambridge University Press.
10. Descartes, Rene (1997), Descartes: key Philosophical Writings, Translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane and G. R. T. Ross, Edited and with an Introduction by Enrique Chavez-Arvizo, Wordsworth Classics of world Literature.
11. Hanna, Robert (1992), “Descartes and Dream Skepticism- Revisited”, Journal of the History of Philosophy ,Volume 30, Number 3, pp. 377-398
12. Hill, James (2004), "Descartes' Dreaming Argument and why we might be Skeptical of it", Richmond Journal of Philosophy.
13. Hoppes, Thomas (1997), Leviathan or the Matter, Forme, & Power, London, Touchstone.
14. Klein, P. D. (2000), "Certainty", in A Companion Epistemology, (E.Ds.) Jonathan, Dancy, And Ernest, Sosa, Oxford, Blackwell.
15. Malcolm, Norman (2002),"Wittgenstein's Skepticism in on Certainty", Critical Assessments of leading philosophers: Ludwig Wittgenstein II, London and New York, Routledge.
16. Stroll, Arum (2009), "Wittgenstein and the Dream Hypothesis", Philosophia (37): 681-690.
17. Voss, Stephen (1993), Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Rene Descartes, New York Oxford, and UNIVERSITY PRESS.
18. Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1969), On Certainty, Translated by DENIS PAUL and G.E.M. ANSCOMBE, Edited by G.E. M. ANSCOMBE and G. H. VON WRIGH, Printed in Great Britain by Alden and Mowbray Ltd at the Alden Press, Oxford and bound at Kemp Hall Bindery
_||_