If I were arguing against Descartes, I would make the point that reason cannot be applicable without sense perception. When I reason mathematically, it is only because I have seen shapes (albeit in their imperfect forms) and perceived from that a mathematical proof. Nobody could have envisioned a triangle using only the mind; they must have seen it in nature.
When Descartes brought up that Galileo and Copernicus postulated celestial movements through pure reason alone, I would have said, how? How can only reason be at work in an external world? How can scientists only use reason? The answer is that they can't. Without the senses there is nothing to reason at all. Galileo went blind from looking at the sun. He used his senses and from there he used reason. Reason and the senses are both essential in perceiving and learning from the world. Descartes and Hume should not argue; rather they should collaborate, because the marriage of their ideas form a balanced view of life and the world around us.
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