as a certainty when all such deceptions have been removed. In this way he examines the falseness of perception and the notion of consciousness before finally arriving at the concept

reality. This system of checks and balances helps to equalize what man truly knows and that which he thinks he knows, serving as "forever an inherent aspiration of the

traces the major philosophical trends regarding knowledge between Descartes and Berkeley, and with primary purpose of differentiating the views of Berkeley and Descartes toward knowledge and God. Descartes posited

separate and different from each other. While Descartes acknowledges that the body and the mind/soul are intimately conjoined, in Meditation IV, he argues that his identity is completely contained

But before comparing and contrasting these two philosophies, it would be a good idea to define them both.

doubt about that knowledge. It is a matter of taking an absolute position and stripping it of its dogmatic stand and imposing the question on it: What else is possible?

he went on to demonstrate why the things he believed were in fact true, but he started from a position of doubt. The movie does the same thing: it leaves

the mind is complex and is used for a variety of things. It is something quite functional and definable biologically, but there is a suggestion of a spiritual nature. There

life" (Ree 206). In contract to the scientific subjectivity of Descartes Enlightenment, which ushered in the modern scientific era, this philosophy stated that subjectivity was simply to experience the

spiritual realm and the physical realm can never be completely separated. Descartes addresses the spiritual realm in his speculations as to the way in which God interacts with his

dream"(Descartes 2003). This thinking leads Descartes to reason that he has taken for granted a great deal. What really seems to bend his mind is the fact that

all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last (Descartes,17). Having posed the problem, he is led to another problem:

the separation of body and mind are indeed just beliefs or whether there is indeed such a separation. He recognizes, in other words, that it is indeed possible for

and soul as connected and not separate. Some claim that the brain is really responsible for everything that occurs at the point of death. There have been studies done to

tries to clarify his initial intent. It is suggested that the friend is just simply asking too much of the concept of knowledge. He says that the word is