Six metaphysical meditations · René Descartes
MEDITAT. I.
_Of Things Doubtful._ Some years past I perceived how many _Falsities_ I admitted as _Truths_ in my Younger years, and how _Dubious_ those things were which I raised from thence; and therefore I thought it requisite (if I had a designe to establish any thing that should prove _firme_ and _permanent_ in sciences) that once in my life I should clearly cast aside all my former opinions, and begin a new from some _First principles_. But this seemed a great Task, and I still expected that maturity of years, then which none could be more apt to receive Learning; upon which Account I waited so long, that at last I should deservedly be blamed had I spent that time in _Deliberation_ which remain’d only for _Action_. This day therefore I conveniently released my mind from all cares, I procured to my self a Time Quiet, and free from all Business, I retired my self Alone; and now at length will I freely and seriously apply my self to the General overthrow of all my former Opinions. To the Accomplishment of Which, it will not be necessary for me to prove them all _false_ (for that perhaps I shall never atcheive) But because my reason perswades me, that I must withdraw my assent no less from those opinions which seem _not so very certain_ and _undoubted_, then I should from those that are _Apparently false_, it will be sufficient if I reject all those wherein I find any _Occasion_ of doubt.
Neither to effect this is it necessary, that they all should be run over particularly (which would be an endles trouble) but because the _Foundation_ being once undermin’d, whatever is built thereon will of its own accord come to the ground, I shall therefore immediately assault the very _principle_, on which whatever I have believed was _grounded_. Viz. _Whatever I have hitherto admitted as most true, that I received either from, or by my Senses; but these I have often found to deceive me, and ’tis prudence never certainly to trust those that I have (tho but once) deceived us._ 1 _Doubt._ But tho sometimes the _senses_ deceive us being exercised about _remote_ or _small_ objects, yet there are many other things of which we cannot doubt tho we know them only by the senses? as that at present I am in this place, that I am sitting by a fire, that I have a Winter gown on me, that I feel this Paper with my hands; But how can it be denied that these hands or this body is mine? Unless I should compare my self to those mad men, whose brains are disturbed by such a disorderly melancholick vapour, that makes them continually profess themselves to be Kings, tho they are very poor, or fancy themselves cloathed in Purple Robes, tho they are naked, or that their heads are made of Clay as a bottle, or of glass, _&c._ But these are mad men, and I should be as mad as they in following their example by fancying these things as they do.
1 _Solution._ This truly would seem very clear to those that never _sleep_, and suffer the same things (and sometimes more unlikely) in their repose, then these mad men do whilst they are awake; for how often am I perswaded in a Dream of these usual occurrences, that I am in this place, that I have a Gown on me, that I am sitting by a fire, _&c._ Tho all the while I am lying naked between the Sheets. But now I am certain that I am awake and look upon this Paper, neither is this head which I shake asleep, I knowingly and willingly stretch out this hand, and am sensible that things so distinct could not happen to one that sleeps. As if I could not remember my self to have been deceived formerly in my sleep by the like thoughts; which while I consider more attentively I am so far convinced of the difficulty of distinguishing sleep from waking that I am amazed, and this very amazement almost perswades me that I am asleep.
2 _Doubt._ Wherefore let us suppose our selves _asleep_, and that these things are not _true_, viz. that we open our eyes, move our heads, stretch our hands, and perhaps that we have no such things as hands or a body. Yet we must confess, that what we see in a Dream is (as it were) _a painted Picture_, which cannot be devised but after the _likeness_ of some _real_ thing; and that therefore these Generals at least, _viz._ eyes, head, hands, and the whole body are things _really existent_ and not _imaginary_; For Painters themselves, (even then when they design Mermaids and Satyrs in the most unusual shapes) do not give them natures altogether new, but only add the divers Parts of different Animals together; And if by chance they invent any thing so new that nothing was ever seen like it, for that ’tis wholy fictitious and false, yet the colours at least of which, they make it must be _true Colours_; so upon the same account, tho these General things as eyes, head, hands, _&c._ may be imaginary; yet nevertheless we must of necessity confess the more _simple_ and _universal_ things to be _True_, of which (as of true Colours) these _Images_ of things (whether _true_ or _false_) which are in our minds are made; such as are the nature of a body in General, and its Extension, also the shape of things extended, with the quantity or bigness of them; their number also, and place wherein they are, the time in which they continue, and the like, and therefore from hence we make no bad conclusion, that _Physick_, both _Natural_, and _Medicinal_, _Astronomy_, and all other _sciences_, which depend on the consideration of _compound things_, are _Doubtful_. But that _Arithmetick_, _Geometry_, and the like (which treat only of the most _simple_, and _General_ things not regarding whether they really are or not) have in them something _certain_ and _undoubted_; for whether I sleep or wake, _two_ and _three_ added make five; a _square_ has no more sides than _four_ _&c._ neither seems it possible what such _plain truths_ can be _doubted_ off.
2 _Solution._ But all this While there is rooted in my mind a certain old opinion of the _being_ of an _Omnipotent God_, by whom I am _created_ in the state I am in; and how know I but he caused that there should be no Earth, no Heaven, no Body, no Figure, no Magnitude, no Place, and yet that all these things should seem to me to be as now they are? And as I very often judge others to Erre about those things which they think they _Throughly understand_, so why may not I be _deceived_, whenever I add _two_ and _three_, or count the sides of a Square, or whatever other easy Matter can be thought of? 3. _Doubt_. But perhaps _God wills not_ that I should be _deceived_, for he is said to be _Infinitely Good_. 3. _Solution._ Yet if it were _Repugnant_ to his _Goodness_ to create me so that I should be _always deceived_, it seems also _unagreeable_ to his _Goodness_ to permit me to be deceived _at any time_; Which last no one will affirme: Some there are truely who had rather deny _Gods Omnipotence_, then beleive all things _uncertain_; but there at present we may not contradict. And we will suppose all this of _God_ to be _false_; yet whether they will suppose me to become what _I_ am by Fate, by _Chance_, by a _continued chain_ of _causes_, or any other way, because to _erre_ is an _Imperfection_, by how much the less _power_ they will Assigne to the _Author_ of my _Being_, so much the more Probable it will be, that I am so _Imperfect_ as to be _alwayes deceived_.
To which Arguments I know not what to answer but am forced to confess, that there is nothing of all those things which I formerly received as _Truths_, whereof at present I may not _doubt_; and this doubt shall not be grounded on inadvertency or Levity, but upon strong and Premeditated reasons; and therefore I must hereafter (if I designe to discover any truths) withdraw my assent from them no less then from _apparent falshoods_. But ’tis not sufficient to think only _Transiently_ on these things, but I must take care to _remember_ them; for dayly my old opinions returne upon me, and much against my Will almost possesse my Beleife tyed to them, as it were by a continued _use_ and _Right_ of _Familiarity_; neither shall I ever cease to _assent_ and _trust_ in them, whilst I suppose them as in themselves they really are, that is to say, _something doubtful_ (as now I have proved) yet notwithstanding _highly Probable_, which it is much more Reasonable to beleive then disbeleive. Wherefore I conceive I should not do amiss, if (with my mind bent clearly to the contrary side) I should deceive my self, and suppose them for a While altogether _false_ and _Imaginary_; till at length the Weights of prejudice being equal in each scale, no ill custome may any more Draw my Judgement from the _true Conception_ of things, for I know from hence will follow no dangerous Error, and I can’t too immoderately pamper my own Incredulity, seeing What I am about, concernes not _Practice_ but _Speculation_.
To Which end I will suppose, not an _Infinitely perfect God_, the _Fountain_ of _truth_, but that some _Evil Spirit_ which is very _Powerful_ and _crafty_ has used all his endeavours to _deceive_ me; I will conceive, the Heavens, Air, Earth, Colours, Figures, Sounds, and all outward things are nothing else but the delusions of Dreams, by which he has laid snares to catch my easy beleif; I will consider my self as not having hands, Eyes, Flesh, Blood, or Sences, but that _I_ falsely think that _I_ have all these; _I_ will continue firmly in this Meditation; and tho it lyes not in my power to _discover any truth_, yet this is in my power, not to _assent to Falsities_, and with a strong resolution take care that the _Mighty deceiver_ (tho never so _powerful_ or _cunning_) impose not any thing on my beleife. But this is a laborious intention, and a certain sloth reduces me to the usual course of life, and like a Prisoner who in his sleep perhaps enjoy’d an imaginary liberty, and when he begins to suppose that he is asleep is afraid to waken, but is willing to be deceived by the _Pleasant delusion_; so I willingly fall into my opinions, and am afraid to be Roused, least a toilsome waking succeeding a pleasant rest I may hereafter live not in the _light_, but in the confused _darkness_ of the _doubts_ now raised.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.