4/17/2021 Dream argument - Wikipedia

Dream argument
The dream argument is the postulation that the act of
dreaming provides preliminary evidence that the senses we
trust to distinguish reality from illusion should not be fully
trusted, and therefore, any state that is dependent on our
senses should at the very least be carefully examined and
rigorously tested to determine whether it is in fact reality.

Contents
Synopsis
Simulated reality
Critical discussion
The dream argument in literature
See also The Dream of Life, by unknown
Mannerist painter, ca. 1533
Notes
References

Synopsis
While one dreams, one does not normally realize one is dreaming. On more rare occasions, the dream
may be contained inside another dream with the very act of realizing that one is dreaming, itself,
being only a dream that one is not aware of having. This has led philosophers to wonder whether it is
possible for one ever to be certain, at any given point in time, that one is not in fact dreaming, or
whether indeed it could be possible for one to remain in a perpetual dream state and never
experience the reality of wakefulness at all.

In Western philosophy this philosophical puzzle was referred to by Plato (Theaetetus 158b-d),
Aristotle (Metaphysics 1011a6), and the Academic Skeptics.[1] It is now best known from René
Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. The dream argument has become one of the most
prominent skeptical hypotheses.

In Eastern philosophy this type of argument is sometimes referred to as the "Zhuangzi paradox":

He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; he who dreams of
weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is dreaming he does not know it is a
dream, and in his dream he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does
he know it was a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that
this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly
assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman—how dense!
Confucius and you are both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming,
too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle. Yet, after ten thousand
generations, a great sage may appear who will know their meaning, and it will still be as
though he appeared with astonishing speed.[2]

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The Yogachara philosopher Vasubandhu (4th to 5th century C.E.) referenced the argument in his
"Twenty verses on appearance only."

The dream argument came to feature prominently in Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.
Some schools of thought (e.g., Dzogchen) consider perceived reality to be literally unreal. As Chögyal
Namkhai Norbu puts it: "In a real sense, all the visions that we see in our lifetime are like a big dream
. . . ."[3] In this context, the term 'visions' denotes not only visual perceptions, but also appearances
perceived through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, and operations
on perceived mental objects.

Simulated reality
Dreaming provides a springboard for those who question whether our own reality may be an illusion.
The ability of the mind to be tricked into believing a mentally generated world is the "real world"
means at least one variety of simulated reality is a common, even nightly event.[4]

Those who argue that the world is not simulated must concede that the mind—at least the sleeping
mind—is not itself an entirely reliable mechanism for attempting to differentiate reality from
illusion.[5]

Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses. But
occasionally I have found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust completely
those who have deceived us even once.

— René Descartes[6]

Critical discussion
In the past, philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes have separately attempted to refute
Descartes's account of the dream argument. Locke claimed that you cannot experience pain in
dreams. Various scientific studies conducted within the last few decades provided evidence against
Locke's claim by concluding that pain in dreams can occur, but on very rare occasions.[7] Philosopher
Ben Springett has said that Locke might respond to this by stating that the agonizing pain of stepping
in to a fire is non-comparable to stepping in to a fire in a dream. Hobbes claimed that dreams are
susceptible to absurdity while the waking life is not.[8]

Many contemporary philosophers have attempted to refute dream skepticism in detail (see, e.g.,
Stone (1984)).[9] Ernest Sosa (2007) devoted a chapter of a monograph to the topic, in which he
presented a new theory of dreaming and argued that his theory raises a new argument for skepticism,
which he attempted to refute. In A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge, he
states: "in dreaming we do not really believe; we only make-believe."[10] Jonathan Ichikawa (2008)
and Nathan Ballantyne & Ian Evans (2010) have offered critiques of Sosa's proposed solution.
Ichikawa argued that as we cannot tell whether our beliefs in waking life are truly beliefs and not
imaginings, like in a dream, we are still not able to tell whether we are awake or dreaming.

Norman Malcolm in his monograph "Dreaming" (published in 1959) elaborated on Wittgenstein's

question as to whether it really mattered if people who tell dreams "really had these images while
they slept, or whether it merely seems so to them on waking". He argues that the sentence "I am
asleep" is a senseless form of words; that dreams cannot exist independently of the waking
impression; and that scepticism based on dreaming "comes from confusing the historical and dream
telling senses...[of]...the past tense" (page 120). In the chapter: "Do I Know I Am Awake ?" he argues
that we do not have to say: "I know that I am awake" simply because it would be absurd to deny that
one is awake.
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The dream hypothesis is also used to develop other philosophical concepts, such as Valberg's
personal horizon: what this world would be internal to if this were all a dream.[11]

The dream argument in literature

Title Author Year Remarks
2016,
Z213: Dimitris Lyacos, Employs a version of the dream argument in order to present reality and
Shoestring
Exit Poena Damni self as two facets of an ever-changing universe.
Press

See also
Cartesian doubt
Consensus reality
Evil demon
False awakening
Maya (illusion)
Multiverse
Reality in Buddhism
Simulated reality
Social simulation
Solipsism

Notes
1. Epictetus, Discourses Book I, Chapter 5, Section 6
2. 莊子, 齊物論, 12. Zhuàngzi, "Discussion on making all things equal," 12. from Zhuàngzi, Burton
Watson trans., Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 43. ISBN 978-0-231-
10595-8 [1] (https://books.google.com/books?id=f1BvUUUVRLEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA43#v=onepa
ge&q&f=false)
3. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Dream Yoga And The Practice Of Natural Light Edited and introduced
by Michael Katz, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY, ISBN 1-55939-007-7, pp. 42, 46, 48, 96,
105.
4. Joseph Barbera, Henry Moller, Dreaming, Virtual Reality, and Presence (https://books.google.co
m/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bttg3B5CZOIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA96&dq=dreaming+simulated+reality&ots=i
PQG-evOVr&sig=_7NT_42ES4XXK8iXz02Necg5W9c#PPA103,M1).
5. Giuliana A. L. Mazzoni and Elizabeth F. Loftus, When Dreams Become Reality (https://archive.tod
ay/20120911031716/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WD0-45MG
TWX-N&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_versio
n=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=23fdaaef820b1ccd4be0982568286789).
6. René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfbits/dm1.
pdf).
7. Knoth, Sophia and Michael Schredl. "Physical pain, mental pain and malaise in dreams".
International Journal of Dream Research.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b7ab/fc5d32e37ad43255f1c4020ed6e9df436b8b.pdf
8. "Dreaming, Philosophy of – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy" (http://www.iep.utm.edu/dreami
ng/#SH1b). utm.edu.
9. Stone, Jim (1984). "Dreaming and Certainty" (http://philpapers.org/archive/STODAC.pdf) (PDF).
Philosophical Studies. 45 (3): 353–368. doi:10.1007/BF00355443 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF
00355443).

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10. Sosa, Ernest (2007). A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge. New York:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-929702-3.
11. Valberg, J.J. (2007). Dream, Death, and the Self (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8416.html).
Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691128597.

References
Ballantyne, Nathan; Evans, Ian (2010). "Sosa's Dream" (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~wnb/Ballantyn
e-Evans_SosasDream.pdf) (PDF). Philosophical Studies. 148 (2): 249–252. doi:10.1007/s11098-
008-9309-y (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11098-008-9309-y).
Ichikawa, Jonathan (2008). "Skepticism and the Imagination Model of Dreaming". The
Philosophical Quarterly. 58 (232): 519–527. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9213.2007.546.x (https://doi.org/1
0.1111%2Fj.1467-9213.2007.546.x).
Sosa, Ernest (2007). A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge (https://archive.
org/details/virtueepistemolo0000sosa). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-
929702-3.
Stone, Jim (1984). "Dreaming and Certainty". Philosophical Studies. 45 (3): 353–368.
doi:10.1007/BF00355443 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF00355443).

Malcolm, N. (1959) Dreaming London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2nd Impression 1962.

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