THE DREAM ARGUMENT
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher born in 1596 who is regarded as the first modern philosopher responsible for the famous saying, "I think, therefore I am". Along with philosophy, he studied mathematics and was the first to discover the link between geometry and maths.
One of Descarte's ideas was proposed as the Dream Argument which questions whether we can ever be sure if we are asleep or awake. He started the argument by saying that he is certain that he is seated in front of a fire. However, Descartes then questions this by noting that he has been convinced that he was sitting in front of a fire, as he could feel its heat and the sensation it provides, only to wake up and find it was all a dream. This raised the question:
"How can I know that I am not now dreaming?"
Dreaming proves that our senses are not always accurate and can provide false information of our surroundings to make fake things seem real, and real things seem fake. The dream argument suggests that as we know that our senses are capable of providing a false reality, no one can ever be certain that they are not in a dream state when it appears they are in reality.
It also points out that many of our beliefs are based off of information that our senses have provided to us. As a result, a lot of the things which we hold as fact could in fact be a result of faulty sensory information. This expands on the Dream Argument as not only do we know for certain whether we are awake or not, but do we actually know anything for certain? This idea is relevant to some of my collages like the one of the man manipulating the wires inside people's heads as it suggests that our environment is manipulated and we cannot trust everything that we see.
This links to my theme of surreality in the everyday as it blurs the lines between real and fake and poses questions about what we perceive to be our true reality. I will use this in my work to possibly use as a narrative by using the images to construct a dream-like world. However, to link to the Dream Argument I will make it unclear if it is a dream or reality and maybe have confusion between the two.
