The Use of Doubt and Skepticism by Descartes in Order to Defeat Doubt and Skepticism

As a mathematician, Descartes was wholly convinced that he could determine all truth through a deduction process from a single fundamental principle. Descartes began by doubting absolutely everything in the hope of arriving at absolute truth and pure knowledge. Basically, in order to seek truth, it is necessary to doubt anything and everything that is capable of being doubted, consider it to be false, and then all that will be left over is the truth. All that is doubtful must be considered false. If something could not be doubted, he reasoned that it must be certain and true. He could…