How do we know we are not dreaming some particular experience we are having, or we are not dreaming all our experience of this world? When we dream we imagine things happening often with the same sense of reality as we do when we are awake. In Descartes dream argument, he states there are no reliable signs distinguishing sleeping from waking. In his dream argument, he is not saying we are merely dreaming all of what we experience, nor, is he saying we can distinguish dreaming from being awake. I think his point is we cannot be for sure what we experience as being real in this world is actually real. When Descartes remembers occasions when he is dreaming, he falsely believes he is awake. Reflecting on this, Descartes thinks he cannot …show more content…

As stated above he cannot state his position as if he is dreaming, so there goes the premises argument. So if this is not a valid argument, then perhaps there is a way to revise my interpretation on Descartes’ Dream argument so it turns out to be a valid argument.
Can we make the argument valid by changing premise 4?
2. Any experience you are having right now could also mean that you are dreaming. In other words, you can’t possibly know that you are dreaming even if it really is a dream.
4. I know that I am dreaming.
5. Therefore, you can’t know anything about the external world based on your sensory experiences.
This is now valid but is Descartes actually dreaming?
Lets try switching around premises one.
1. If I cannot distinguish with certainty between sense perceptions and dreams, then I cannot believe anything based on images as true.
2. I cannot distinguish with certainty between sense perceptions and dreams.
3. Therefore, I cannot believe as true anything based on images.
The argument is now valid again. But the question remains, whether the argument is sound and all the premises are true. A dream is a dream because