Six metaphysical meditations · René Descartes
MEDITAT. IV.
_Of Truth and Falshood._ Of late it has been so common with me to withdraw _my Mind_ from my _sences_, and I have so throughly consider’d how few things there are appertaining to _Bodies_ that are _truly_ perceived, and that there are more Things touching _Mans mind_, and yet more concerning _God_, which are _well known_; that now without any difficulty _I_ can turn my Thoughts from things _sensible_, to those which are only _Intelligible_, and _Abstracted_ from _Matter_. And truely _I_ have a much more _distinct Idea_ of a _Mans mind_ (as it is a _Thinking Thing_, having no _Corporeal Dimensions_ of _Length_, _Breadth_, and _Thickness_, nor having any other _Corporeal Quality_) then the _Idea_ of any _Corporeal Thing_ can be. And when I reflect upon my self, and consider how that I _doubt_, that is, am an _imperfect dependent Being_, I from hence Collect such a _clear_ and _distinct Idea_ of an _Independent perfect Being_, which is _God_, and from hence only that _I have such an Idea_, that is, because _I_ that have this _Idea_ do _my self Exist_; I do so _clearly_ conclude that _God also Exists_, and that on him my _Being depends_ each Minute; That I am Confident nothing can be known more _Evidently_ and _Certainly_ by _Humane Understanding_. And now _I_ seem to perceive a _Method_ by which, (from this Contemplation of the _true God_, in whom the Treasures of _Knowledge_ and _Wisdome_ are Hidden) _I_ may attain the _Knowledge_ of other Things.
And first, _I_ know ’tis impossible that this _God_ should _deceive_ me; For in all _cheating_ and _deceipt_ there is something of _imperfection_; and tho to be _able_ to _deceive_ may seem to be an Argument of _ingenuity_ and _power_, yet without doubt to _have_ the _Will_ of _deceiving_ is a sign of _Malice_ and _Weakness_, and therefore is not _Incident_ to _God_. I have also found in my self a _Judicative faculty_, which certainly (as all other things I possess) I have received from _God_; and seeing he will not _deceive_ me, he has surely given me such a _Judgement_, that I can _never Err_, whilst I make a _Right Use_ of it. Of which truth I can make no doubt, unless it seems, that From hence it will follow, That therefore _I can never Err_; for if whatever I have, I have from _God_, and if he gave me no _Faculty_ of _Erring_, I may seem not to be _able to Err_. And truly so it is whilst I think upon _God_, and wholly convert my self to the _consideration_ of him, I find no occasion of _Error_ or _Deceit_; but yet when I return to the _Contemplation_ of _my self_, I find my self liable to _Innumerable Errors_. Enquiring into the _cause_ of which, I find in my self an _Idea_, not only a _real_ and _positive one_ of a _God_, that is, of a _Being infinitely perfect_, but also (as I may so speak) a _Negative Idea_ of _Nothing_; that is to say, I am so constituted between God and Nothing or between a perfect _Being_ and _No-being_, that as I am _Created_ by the _Highest Being_, I have nothing in Me by which I may be _deceived_ or drawn into _Error_; but as I pertake in a manner of _Nothing_, or of a _No-Being_, that is, as I my self am _not_ the _Highest Being_, and as I _want_ many _perfections_, ’tis no Wonder that I should be _Deceived_.
By which I understand that _Error_ * (as it is _Error_) is not any _real Being_ dependant on _God_, but it is only a _Defect_; And that therefore to make me _Err_ there is not requisite a _faculty_ of _Erring_ given me by _God_, but only it so happens that I _Err_ meerly because the _Judicative faculty_, which he has given me, is not _Infinite_. But yet this Account is not fully _satisfactory_; for _Error_ is not only a meer _Negation_, but ’tis a _Privation_, or a _want_ of a certain _Knowledge_, which _ought_ (as it were) to be in me. And when I consider the _Nature_ of _God_, it seems impossible that he should give me any _faculty_ which is not _perfect_ in its _kind_, or which should _want_ any of its _due perfections_; for if by how much the more _skilful_ the _Workman_ is, by so much the _Perfecter Works_ proceed from him. What can be made by the _Great Maker_ of all things which is not _fully perfect_? For I cannot Doubt but _God_ may _Create_ me so that I may _never_ be _deceived_, neither can I doubt but that he _Wills_ whatever is _Best_; Is it therefore _better_ for me to be _deceived_, or not to be _deceived?_
These things when I Consider more heedfully, it comes into my Mind, First, that ’tis no cause of Admiration that _God_ should do Things whereof I can give no account, nor must I therefore doubt his _Being_, because there are many things done by him, and I not comprehend _Why_ or _How_ they are done; for seeing I now know that my _Nature_ is very _Weak_ and _Finite_, and that the _Nature_ of _God_ is _Immense_, _Incomprehensible_, _Infinite_; from hence I must fully, understand, that he can do numberless things, the _Causes_ whereof lie _hidden_ to Me. Upon which account only I esteem all those Causes which are Drawn from the End (viz. _Final Causes_) as of no use in _Natural Philosophy_, for I cannot without Rashness Think my self _able_ to Discover _Gods_ Designes. I perceive this also, that whenever we endeavour to know whether the _Works_ of _God_ are _perfect_, we must not Respect any _one kind_ of Creature _singly_, but the _Whole Universe_ of _Beings_; for perhaps what (if considered _alone_) may Deservedly seem _Imperfect_, yet (as it is a _part_ of the _World_) is most _perfect_; and tho since I have _doubted_ of all things, I have discover’d nothing _certainly_ to _Exist_, but _my self_, and _God_, yet since I have Consider’d the _Omnipotency_ of _God_, I cannot deny, but that many other things _are made_ (or at least, _may be made_) by him, so that I my self _may be_ a _part_ of this _Universe_.
Furthermore, coming nigher to my self, and enquiring what these _Errors_ of mine, are (which are the Only Arguments of my _Imperfection_) * I find them to _depend_ on _two concurring Causes_, on my _faculty_ of _Knowing_, and on my _faculty_ of _Choosing_ or _Freedome_ of my _Will_, that is to say, from my _Understanding_, and my _Will together_. For by my _Understanding alone_ I only perceive _Ideas_, whereon I make _Judgments_, wherein (_precisely_ so taken) there can be no _Error, properly_ so called; for tho perhaps there may be numberless things, whose _Ideas_ I have _not_ in Me, yet I am not _properly_ to be said _Deprived_ of them, but only _negatively wanting_ them; and I cannot prove that _God ought_ to have given me a _greater faculty_ of _Knowing_. And tho I understand him to be a _skilful Workman_, yet I cannot Think, that he _ought_ to have put all those _perfections_ in _each_ Work of his _singly_, with which he might have _endowed some_ of them. Neither can I complain that _God_ has not given me a _Will_, or _Freedom_ of _Choise_, _large_ and _perfect_ enough; for I have experienced that ’tis _Circumscribed_ by _no Bounds_.
And ’tis worth our taking notice, that I have no other thing in me so _perfect_ and so _Great_, but I Understand that there may be _Perfecter_ and _Greater_, for if (for Example) I consider the _Faculty_ of _Understanding_, I presently perceive that in me ’tis very _small_ and _Finite_, and also at the same time I form to my self an _Idea_ of an other _Understanding_ not only _much Greater_, but the _Greatest_ and _Infinite_, which I perceive to belong to _God_. In the same manner if I enquire into _memory_ or _imagination_ or any other faculties, I find them in my self _Weak_ and _Circumscribed_, but in _God_ I Understand them to be _Infinite_, there is therefore only my _Will_ or _Freedome_ of _Choice_, which I find to be _so Great_, that I cannot frame to my self an _Idea_ of _One Greater_, so that ’tis by this _chiefly_ by which I Understand my self to Bear the _likeness_ and _Image_ of _God_. For tho the _Will_ in _God_ be without comparison _Greater_ then Mine, both as to the _Knowledge_ and _Power_ which are _Joyn’d_ therewith, which make it more _strong_ and _Effective_, and also as to the _Object_ thereof, for _God_ can apply himself to _more_ things then I can. Yet being taken _Formally_ and _Precisely Gods Will_ seems _no greater_ then Mine. For the _Freedome_ of _Will_ consists only in this, that we can _Do_, or _not Do_ such a Thing (that is, _affirm_ or _deny_, _prosecute_ or _avoid_) or rather in this Only, that we are _so carried_ to a Thing which is _proposed_ by Our _Intellect_ to _Affirm_ or _Deny_, _Prosecute_ or _Shun_, that we are _sensible_, that we are _not Determin’d_ to the _Choice_ or _Aversion_ thereof, by any _outward Force_.
Neither is it Requisite to make one _Free_ that he should have an _Inclination_ to _both_ sides. For on the contrary, by how much the more _strongly_ I am inclined to _one_ side (whether it be that I _evidently perceive_ therein Good or Evil, or Whether it be that _God has so disposed_ my _Inward Thoughts_) By so much the _more Free_ am I in my _Choice_. Neither truly do _Gods Grace_ or _Natural Knowledge_ take away from my _Liberty_, but rather _encrease_ and _strengthen_ it. For that _indifference_ which I find in my self, when no Reason inclines me _more_ to _one side_, then to _the other_, is the _meanest_ sort of _Liberty_, and is so far from being a sign of _perfection_, that it only argues a _defect_ or _negation_ of _Knowledge_; for if I should always _Clearly see_ what were _True_ and _Good_ I should never _deliberate_ in my _Judgement_ or _Choice_, and Consequently, tho I were _perfectly Free_, yet I should never be _Indifferent_. From all which, I perceive that neither the _Power_ of _Willing precisely_ so taken, which I have from _God_, is the _Cause_ of my _Errors_, it being most _full_ and _perfect_ in its kind; Neither also the _Power_ of _Understanding_, for whatever I _Understand_ (since ’tis from God that I _Understand_ it) I _understand aright_, nor can I be therein _Deceived_.
From _Whence_ therefore proceed all my _Errors_? To which, I answer, that they proceed from _hence_ only, that seeing the _Will_ expatiates it self _farther_ then the _Understanding_, I keep it not within the _same bounds_ with my _Understanding_, but often extend it to those things which I _Understand not_, to which things it being _Indifferent_, it easily Declines from what is _True_ and _Good_; and consequently I am _Deceived_ and _Commit sin_. * Thus, for example, when lately I felt my self to enquire, Whether any thing doth _Exist_, and found that from my setting _my self_ to Examine such a thing, it evidently follows that I _my self Exist_, I could not but _Judge_, what I so _clearly Understood_, to be _true_, not that I was _forced_ thereto by any _outward impulse_, but because a _strong Propension_ in my _Will_ did follow this _Great Light_ in my _Understanding_, so that I believed it so much the more _freely_ and _willingly_, by how much the less _indifferent_ I was thereto.
But now I understand, not only, that I _Exist_ as I am a _Thing_ that _Thinks_, but I also meet with a certain _Idea_ of a _Corporeal Nature_, and it so happens that I _doubt_, whether that _Thinking Nature_ that is in me be _Different_ from that _Corporeal Nature_, or Whether they are _both the same_: but in this _I_ suppose that _I_ have found no Argument to _incline_ me _either ways_, and therefore _I_ am _Indifferent_ to _affirm_ or _deny either_, or to _Judge nothing_ of _either_; But this _indifferency_ extends it self not only to those things of which I am _clearly ignorant_, but generally to all those things which are _not_ so very _evidently known_ to me at the Time when my _Will Deliberates_ of them; for tho never so probable _Guesses incline_ me to _one_ side, yet the Knowing that they are only _Conjectures_, and not indubitable _reasons_, is enough to Draw my _Assent_ to the _Contrary_ Part. Which Lately _I_ have sufficiently experienced, when _I_ supposed all those things (which formerly _I_ assented to as most _True_) as very _False_, for this _Reason_ only that _I_ found my self _able_ to doubt of them in some manner.
If I abstain from _passing_ my _Judgment_, when I do _not clearly_ and _distinctly_ enough perceive what is _Truth_, ’tis evident that I do _well_, and that I am _not deceived_: But if I _affirm_ or _deny_, then ’tis that I _abuse_ the _freedome_ of my _will_, and if I turn my self to that part which is _false_, I am _deceived_; but if I _embrace_ the _contrary_ Part, ’tis but _by chance_ that I light on the _Truth_, yet I shall not therefore be Blameless, for ’tis Manifest by the _light_ of _Nature_ that the _Perception_ of the _Understanding ought_ to preceed the _Determination_ of the _Will_. And ’tis in this _abuse_ of _Free-Will_ that That _Privation_ consists, which Constitutes _Error_; I say there is a _Privation_ in the _Action_ as it proceeds from Me, but not in the _Faculty_ which I have received from _God_; nor in the _Action_ as it _depends_ on _him_. Neither have I any Reason to Complain that God has not given me a _larger Intellective Faculty_, or more _Natural Light_, for ’tis a necessary Incident to a _finite Understanding_ that it should not Understand _All_ things, and ’tis Incident to a _Created Understanding_ to be _Finite_: and I have more Reason to thank him for what he has _bestowed_ upon me (tho he _owed_ me nothing) then to think my self _Robbed_ by him of those things which he _never gave me_.
Nor have I Reason to Complain that he has given me a _Will_ larger then my _Understanding_: for seeing the _Will_ Consists in _one_ thing only, and as it were in an _Indivisible_ (viz. to _Will_, or _not to Will_) it seems contrary to its nature that it should be _less_ then ’tis; and certainly by how much the _Greater_ it is, so much the more _Thankful_ I ought to be to _him_; that Gave it me. Neither can I Complain that God _concurrs_ with me in the Production of those _Voluntary Actions_ or _Judgements_ in which I am _deceived_: for those _Acts_ as they _depend_ on _God_ are altogether _True_ and _Good_; and I am in some measure _more perfect_ in that I can _so Act_, then if I could _not_: for that _Privation_, in which the _Ratio Formalis_ of _Falshood_ and _Sin_ consists, wants not the _Concourse_ of _God_; For it is _not A Thing_, and having respect to him as its _Cause_, ought not to be called _Privation_, but _Negation_; for certainly ’tis no _Imperfection_ in _God_, that he has given me a _freedome_ of _Assenting_ or _not Assenting_ to some things, the _clear_ and _distinct_ Knowledge whereof he has not _Imparted_ to my _Understanding_; but certainly ’tis an _Imperfection_ in me, that I _abuse_ this _liberty_, and _pass_ my _Judgement_ on those things which I do _not Rightly_ Understand.
Yet I see that ’tis Possible with _God_ to effect that (tho I should remain _Free_, and of a _Finite Knowledge_) I should _never Err_, that is, if he had endowed my _Understanding_ with a _clear_ and _distinct_ Knowledge of all things whereof I should ever have an _Occasion_ of _deliberating_; or if he had only so firmly fix’d in my Mind, that I should never forget, this, _That I must never Judge of a thing which I do not clearly and distinctly Understand_; Either of which things had _God_ done, I easily perceive that _I_ (as consider’d in my self) should be _more perfect_ then now I am, yet nevertheless I cannot deny but that there _may be a greater perfection_ in the _whole Universe_ of Things, for that some of its parts are Obnoxious to _Errors_, and some not, then if they were all _alike_. And I have no Reason to Complain, that it has pleased God, that I should _Act_ on the _Stage_ of this _World_ a _Part_ not the _chief_ and _most perfect_ of all; Or that I should not be able to abstain from _Error_ in the _first way_ above specifi’d, which depends upon the _Evident Knowledge_ of those things whereof _I deliberate_; Yet that I may abstain from _Error_ by the _other means_ abovemention’d, which depends only on this, _That I Judge not of any Thing, the truth whereof is not Evident._ For tho I have experienced in my self this _Infirmity_, that I cannot _always_ be intent upon _one_ and the _same_ Knowledge, yet _I_ may by a _continued_ and _often repeated_ Meditation bring this to pass, that as often as _I_ have use of this Rule _I_ may Remember it, by which means I may Get (as it were) an _habit_ of _not erring_.
In which thing seeing, the _greatest_ and _chief perfection_ of _Man_ consists, _I_ repute my self to have gain’d much by this days _Meditation_, for that therein _I_ have discover’d the _Cause_ of _Error_, _and Falshood_; which certainly can be no other then what _I_ have now Declared; for whenever in Passing my Judgement, _I_ bridle my _Will_ so that it extend it self _only_ to those things which I _clearly_ and _distinctly_ perceive, it is impossible that I can _Err_. For doubtless All _clear_ and _distinct_ Perception is _something_, and therefore cannot _proceed_ from _Nothing_, but must necessarily have _God_ for its _Author_ (_God_, I say, Who is _infinitely Perfect_, and who _cannot Deceive_) and therefore it Must be _True_. Nor have I this Day learnt only what I must _beware off_ that I be not _deceived_, but also what I must _Do_ to Discover _Truth_, for _That_ I shall certainly find, if I fully Apply my self to those things _only_, which I _perfectly_ understand; and if I distinguish between those and what I apprehend but _confusedly_ and _obscurely_; Both which hereafter I shall endeavour.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.