... therefore he essentially does not know anything. He realizes that he must rebuild his knowledge from the base up if he is to be absolutely certain about anything in reality. To be absolutely sure of this, he must call all that he knows into doubt so that he is not making any assumptions about the base knowledge on which he can build his theories. He realizes that everything he has come to think he knows is a result of sensory experience, and so he must reject all empirical knowledge of the world and instead focus on his reason alone. His knowledge must be built on completely a priori foundations if he is to have any knowledge at all. This extreme skepticism is the only thing that will allow him to clear all of his prejudices about reality. In this discussion Descartes raises at least one point that appears to be ...

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