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. …showed first 75 words of 349 total…

…showed last 75 words of 349 total…that WMDs were present in Iraq and that the US Military and the CIA knew precisely where to find them; however, all of them were wrong. If one thing is for certain after understanding Descartes's methodological process of doubt, it is that one cannot doubt the existence of his or her own mind. Such a doubt would be impossible since doubting is, in fact, an exercise of the mind and proof of its own existence.