Abstract

ROCHA, Ethel Menezes da. NOTAS SOBRE O ARGUMENTO DA LOUCURA NA PRIMEIRA MEDITAÇÃO. Educação e Filosofia [online]. 2011, vol.25, n.spe, pp.103-116.  Epub Jan 31, 2024. ISSN 1982-596X.  https://doi.org/10.14393/revedfil.issn.0102-6801.v25nespeciala2011-05.

The purpose of this article is to contend for the reading of the Meditations on First Philosophy according to which Descartes in the First Meditation does not reject madness as an argument but, indeed, uses it in an even more radical form. Furthermore, according to the reading here defended, the possibility of madness in its radical form is absolutely necessary for the efficacy of Cartesian doubt. Through the dream argument and the hypothesis of a Deceiving God, Descartes annuls the individual feature of madness, which allows him to appeal to a more radical version of it. Through these arguments, the possibility arises that, just like madmen, every man fabricates his own “sense data” and thinks incoherently, and this is what makes it possible for Descartes to question all criteria of evidence at the end of the First Meditation.

Keywords : Argument of madness; Dream hypothesis; Hypothesis of a Deceiving God.

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