Descartes Argumentation to the pinch test

Descartes Argumentation to the “pinch test”

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Descartes Argumentation to the “pinch test”

From my point of view, Descartes would conclude that the pinch test was an unreliable test to be used for authenticating if one was dreaming or was awake in real life, in any course of experience you can have while awake can also be had while having those sorts of dreams. His conclusions basically will be derived from the first step that appears to involve making inference such as: sometimes when you are dreaming you cannot tell whether or not you are dreaming, so even when you are awake you cannot tell whether or not you are dreaming. Descartes will note that some dreams are so realistic that the dreamer actually believes it is real. So if these “realistic dreams” exist and one can truly believe what he or she is feeling, tasting, smelling, seeing or hearing something when they actually at rest and sleeping, how can one tell if they are awake? And how can one know the difference between reality and a dream?

In his renowned dream argument Descartes begins by stating that dreams are often mistaken as an actual experience of sensory perception. There are no clear signals at any given moment to prove one is awake as opposed to dreaming, pain is related to the sensory perception of touch if one is able to have a pleasant tactile perception in a dream then it just as possible for a dreamer to experience unpleasant tactile while dreaming. Descartes would further argue that if we actually pinched ourselves, the pain we feel would not come from the pinch itself but maybe a previous harm, injury or wound, or maybe there was another person playing a role in the pinch test and the pain could only feel that extreme if another member was involved.

In one of Descartes response he says, “Indeed! As if I did not remember other occasions when have been tricked exactly by similar thoughts while asleep! As I think about it more carefully, I see plainly that there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished by being asleep.” According to Descartes’ response above, no matter what test you appeal to, the possibility will always remain open that you are merely dreaming that you have performed the test and that it delivered the result it did. From this argument you cannot really tell whether you are dreaming or you are awake thus Descartes would term and render the “pinch test” as an unreliable test to conclude if one is surely awake or dreaming.

I coherently agree with Descartes conclusion and reasoning over the unreliability of the” pinch test” in defining if one was asleep or dreaming. It is certainly possible that the “pinch test” has more to do with the fact that in some way or in any way pain never occurs in dreams, a claim which is refutable. Its refutability arises with plenty of people having reported of feeling pain in their dreams, I might go as far as to say that in my personal experience pain and tactile sensation are vivid and perhaps enhanced in my dreams. One particular example is when I dreamt a friend punched me on the face, I felt the pain severely like I would have felt when awake. The funny part of it all is that when I woke up, I did still feel the pain though it gradually lessened as time passed by.

In the “pinch test” the thought presumably is, in dreams we don’t have tactile sense experiences or pain experiences, or we do have such experiences but they are different from waking tactile experiences in a way that is noticeable to the dreamer. In the past, philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes have separately attempted to refute Descartes’ account of the dream argument, according to Locke, (1680), pain in dreams are not as intense as are in real life a claim which scientific studies conducted in the late 20th century provide complete and convincing evidence that are strongly against his claims.

From the above reasons and personal experience I strongly agree with Descartes conclusion and reasoning over the unreliability of the “pinch test” to know if one is dreaming or wide awake.

References

Descartes, R (2010). Meditations of First Philosophy. Cambridge University Press Publishers

Ariew, R (2000). Philosophical Essays and Correspondence. Hackett Publishing Co.

Sosa, E (2007). A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge. Oxford University Press Publishers.