After all, we’ve all been tricked by optical illusions. To deconstruct his knowledge, Descartes first doubted his senses, because in the past, they had sometimes deceived him. If the house, or system of knowledge, doesn’t have a firm foundation, it is shaky and must be deconstructed and rebuilt. In order to have secure knowledge, it must rest on firm foundations, like a house. He subscribed to foundationalism, which is an epistemological approach, or a theory of knowledge, that attempts to justify all knowledge claims from a secure and certain claim. Descartes had become disillusioned with his own knowledge and began to doubt everything he had ever known. “I think, therefore, I am” was first purported by 17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes in its Latin form: Cogito, ergo sum. It is a foundational knowledge claim that cannot be refuted, even in the face of radical doubt. If you think, you are a thinking thing that exists in some way. I think, therefore, I am is a philosophical claim which proves that regardless of how we exist, we still exist. We are consciously thinking of the pinching, therefore we must exist in some way. However, the one thing that we do know is that we are experiencing the pinching in some way, whether or not we have hands or it is all just in our mind. If so, pinching ourselves isn’t going to let us know if we are a brain in a vat or not. Perhaps we are a brain in a vat, with our neurons connected to a high functioning computer making us feel as though we are living real life. However, pinching ourselves doesn’t seem to be a fool-proof way to know that we aren’t dreaming. If we don’t wake up, then we aren’t dreaming. Is there anyway to know that you are not dreaming right now, and that you have never woken up? Explanation

Have you ever had a dream that felt so real? A dream where you didn’t know you were dreaming until you woke up? If yes, compare how you felt in the dream to how you feel in your awake life.

I think therefore i am