Six metaphysical meditations · René Descartes
ANSWER.
Tho to make us _Err_ there is requisite a _Faculty_ of _Reasoning_ (or rather of _Judging_, that is, of _Affirming_ and _Denying_) because _Error_ is the _Defect_ thereof, yet it does not follow from thence that this _Defect_ is any thing _Real_, for neither is _Blindness_ a _Real_ Thing, tho stones cannot be said to be _Blind_, for this Reason only, That they are _incapable of sight_. And I much wonder that in all these _Objections_ I have not found one _Right Inference_. I have not here assumed any thing concerning the _Freedom_ of _Mans Will_, unless what all Men do Experience in themselves, and is most evident by the Light of Nature. Neither see I any Reason, Why he should say that this is Contradictious to any former Position. Perhaps there may be Many, who respecting _Gods predisposal_ of Things cannot Comprehend, How their _Freedom_ of _Will_ Consists there-with, but yet there is no Man who, respecting himself only, does not find by Experience, That ’tis one and the same Thing to be _Willing_, and to be _Free_. But ’tis no Place to Enquire what the Opinion of others may be in this Matter.
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