Descartes maintained
that our experience never permits us to judge with certainty that we are awake: “[T]here are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish
wakefulness from sleep.” So I would be unjustified in judging that I am now, in
fact, awake with a computer screen in front of me.
(At the end of the
day, of course, Descartes did think I could be so justified, but before that
day’s end I would have to traverse through his cogito, taxonomy of mental contents, clear and distinct ideas, ontological argument, and his argument that God is trustworthy. Not being able
to negotiate that entire journey, I want to see where we end up on dreams if we
decline to go beyond Descartes’s First Meditation.)
