and so.....
I did a little outside reasearch to the problem in which I was writing about a day or so ago and discovered the following. Rene Descartes does address the skepticism about believing in an outside world. He later, after his argument about the existence of God in the 3rd and 5th meditations, states that a benevolent God would not deceive him. He states that the perceptions he gets are not willed to him and that God would not deceive him into falsely perceiving them. And that supports the exsistence of an outside world. I have not fully finished reading about this. This is the quick short answer that I found through a couple different sources. Just wanted to share in case this was vexing anyone else as it was me. Comments are welcome.
So his conclusion is that because two possiblities [his thoughts are not willed to him (did he mentioned willed to him by what or whom?) and god would not decieve him,] have in his mind been dealt with, the outside world must be real? Are there any other possibilities?
I did not read past the second meditations but his view on god was bothering me. Why does he not go into the question of god's existence with the same ferver as he does the question of his own existence and the existence of an outside world?
Kara, Thanks for looking into this more. The information on the 3rd and 5th meditations cleared up my understanding a bit. Although, I think I'm more impressed with Descartes' method of reasoning than the actual conclusions that he arrived at.