Chapter 5 The first meditation on things that can arouse doubt

Since I have long since felt that I have accepted as true a mass of false opinions since my infancy, and that nothing I have built up since then on very dubious principles cannot but be quite dubious, very unreliable, so I think② if I want to establish something solid and permanent in science, I must seriously take all the opinions I have always believed to be true in my lifetime. Clear it out and start over fundamentally.But the scope of the work seemed too great to me, and I waited until I had reached a sufficiently mature age, so mature that I could no longer hope that there would be a time after that when it would be more appropriate to carry out the work, This has caused me to procrastinate so long, until I think that if I spend the rest of my life not acting, but thinking about coming and going, I will be making a huge mistake.

① French second edition: "Not from today". ②French second edition: "Since then I thought". And now, having liberated my mind from all distractions, and enjoying a steady rest in a quiet solitude, I shall seriously and freely make a review of all my old opinions. total reckoning.However, in order to achieve this purpose, it is not necessary to prove these old views wrong, because then I may never achieve the purpose.However, reason tells me that I should not believe easily in things that are not completely certain, just as I think that they are obviously wrong, so it is enough for me to find anything in them that is even a little suspicious. make me throw them all away.This way, I don't need to bring them in and check them one by one, because that would be a never-ending job.But the tearing down of the foundations must bring the rest of the edifice down with it, so I will start first with the principles on which all my old views were based.

①French second edition: "And today is the best day for carrying out this plan, because my spirit has been freed from all kinds of concerns, and luckily I have not felt any emotional excitement." ②French second edition: "If you find any reason for doubt in everything". Hitherto, whatever I have accepted as truest and most reliable, I have received from or through the senses.I have sometimes felt, however, that these senses are deceitful; and prudence never fully trusts that which once deceives us. But though the senses sometimes deceive us about things that are indistinct and remote, there may be many others, though we know them through the senses, and have no reason to doubt them: here I am, for instance, sitting by the fire Beside, wearing a chamber robe, holding this paper in both hands, and things like that.

How can I deny that these two hands and this body are mine, unless perhaps I am compared with those ② madmen?The brains of those lunatics are so disturbed and clouded by the black vapor of bile that they often think themselves kings though poor; Or their bodies are glass.But why, those are madmen, and if I were compared with them, I would be no less absurd than they are. Nevertheless, here I must take into account that I am human, and therefore have the habit of sleeping and having dreams of exactly the same, and sometimes even more absurd, things that madmen do when they are awake.How many times have I dreamed at night that I am in this place, clothed, by the fire, though naked under my bed!I now really think that I am not looking at this paper with sleepy eyes, and that my shaking head is not dizzy, I stretch out this hand deliberately and consciously, I feel this hand, and appear in The situation in the dream seems not so clear, nor so clear.However, when I think about it carefully, I remember that I have often been deceived by such false appearances in my sleep.Thinking of this, it became apparent to me that there were no definite marks, and no fairly reliable signs① from which one could clearly distinguish waking from dreaming, which surprised me so much that It's almost enough to make me believe I'm sleeping right now.

① refers to long casual clothes worn indoors.Many people translate robe de chambre as "pajamas", which is wrong; because there were no pajamas in Europe in the 17th century, and Europeans were used to taking off their clothes to sleep at that time, so Descartes said in the next paragraph: "Lying naked on my in the quilt". ②The second edition of French is: "Some". ③ "There is no very reliable sign", the second edition of the French is missing. Let us now assume, then, that we are asleep, that all these individual instances, that we open our eyes, that we shake our heads, that we reach out our hands, etc., are mere illusions; The whole body may not be what we see it to be.Nevertheless, at least it must be admitted that the things that appear in our dreams are like books, which can only be made by imitating something real, so that at least ordinary things, such as eyes, heads, hands, and bodies The rest ① is not something imagined, but something real ②, something that exists.For, to be honest, when painters paint mermaids and goats with the utmost skill and grotesque shapes, they cannot, after all, add to them entirely novel shapes and qualities; or even if their imagination reaches a level of absurdity enough to invent something so novel that we have never seen anything like it, so that their work presents to us a purely fictional and Something that is absolutely unreal, but at least the colors that make up this thing should always be real.

① "The rest of the part", the second French edition is missing. ② French second edition: "real". In the same way, even if such general things as eyes, heads, hands, and the like are imaginary, it must be admitted that there are 2 simpler and more general things which are real and exist because of their Mixing, no more, no less, just as the mixing of certain real colors forms all the images of the things that exist in our minds, whether these things are real and real, or imaginary and grotesque. Worth mentioning.The properties of bodies in general, and their extension, and the shape, magnitude, or magnitude, and number of things of extension belong to this class;

① The second French version is: "For example, the body, the eyes...". ②French second edition: "At least there are others". That is why it may not be wrong to conclude from what has been said that physics, astronomy, medicine, and all other sciences which deal with complex things of all kinds are dubious and unreliable; Geometry, and other sciences of a similar nature, since they deal with very simple and general things, and do not take much account of their existence in nature, all contain something certain. .For, whether I am awake or asleep, two and three always add up to the number five, and a square never has more than four sides; possibility of error or unreliability.

Nevertheless, a certain idea has been in my mind since long: that there is a God, who is all-powerful, who created and brought me into being as I am.But who can assure me that this God has not done this, that there is no earth, no sky, no extended body, no shape, no size, no place, and I have all these things. Feelings, and all that exists but as I see it?Also, just as I sometimes judge other people to be wrong even about what they think they know best, it may be God's will that I add two and three at a time, or count the sides of a square. , or be wrong in judging what is easier (if one can think of anything easier than that).But maybe God didn't mean to let me get that wrong, because he's said to be the best.Nevertheless, if it is contrary to his goodness to make me so that I always be wrong, it seems absolutely contrary to his goodness to allow me to be wrong sometimes, so I cannot Doubt he would allow me to do this.

①French second edition: "But how do I know if he...". ②French second edition: "How do I know if God has me also...". ③ "absolutely", the second edition of French is missing. Here perhaps someone would rather deny the existence of a God so powerful than believe that everything else is unreliable.But let us not yet oppose them, but assume on their side that all that is said here about a God is nonsense.Nevertheless, whatever they presume of my condition and existence, they ascribe it to some fate or fate, or to chance, or to a succession and combination of things. Anyway, since ①mistakes and mistakes are an incompleteness, it is certain that②the more incompetent the authors they assign to my sources, the more likely I am to be incomplete so that I am always wrong.Of course I have no answer to such reasons; but I am compelled to admit that there is not a single opinion which I had earlier believed to be true which I cannot now doubt, not from thoughtlessness or rashness, but from Strong, well-thought-out reasons.

Henceforth, if I want to find something permanent and certain in science, I must henceforth pass no judgment on these ideas, any more than I do on things that are instantly recognizable to be wrong. Do not place more trust in them.But it is not enough merely to make these notices, I must also be careful to remember them; They have the right, let them take possession of my mind against my will, and become almost masters over my convictions.As long as I consider them as they really are, that, as I have just pointed out, they are somehow dubious, yet quite probable, there is all the more reason to believe them. Without denying them, I can never break the habit of acknowledging and trusting them.

It is for this reason, I think, that if I conversely try to deceive myself by pretending that all these opinions are false and fanciful, until, after weighing them over and over, they do not overwhelm my own. If my mind is biased to one side or the other, so that my judgment will not be swayed by bad habits in the future, and I will not abandon the correct path that can lead to understanding the truth and go astray, then I will be more cautious. ⑥Because I really believe that there can be neither danger nor mistakes on this road, I really believe that I cannot allow too much mistrust today, because the problem now is not action, but only contemplation and understanding. ①French second edition: Before "Since", there is "Or in the end use any other way". ② "Affirmatively" is missing in the second French edition. ③ "Now" is "somewhat" in the second edition of French. ④ "enduring" in the second edition of the French is "reliable". ⑤ "I will... trust" in the second edition of French: "From now on, I should be the same as I am to things that are obviously wrong, and I will not judge easily." ⑥ The second French version is: "It is for this reason that I think that if I deliberately adopt a hostile mood, I deceive myself, if I pretend for a moment that all these views are completely wrong and fanciful, until finally Putting my old and new preconceptions...well done." I shall therefore presume, instead of a true God (who is the supreme source of truth), some monster, who is as cunning and deceitful as he is, and uses all his tact to deceive me. .I shall consider the sky, the air, the earth, the colours, shapes, sounds, and all external things which we see to be nothing but illusions and deceptions by which he deceives me into credulity.I want to see myself as having no hands, no eyes, no flesh, no blood, no senses of any kind, and falsely believe that I have these things.I will hold fast to this thought; and if by this means I do not know any truth, at least I am capable of not judging.It is for this reason that I take care not to believe anything wrong, and prepare me mentally for all the cunning of this great liar, so that he will never be able to force anything on me, no matter what he does. How powerful, how cunning. ①Second edition in French: "I shall assume that it was not God (who is very good and the supreme source of truth) who deceived me with all his wits, but some demon, no less cunning and deceitful than because of the strength of his abilities." ② French second edition: "...and all other external things are just some illusions and dreams he used to deceive me into credulity". But this project was very laborious, and due to a certain inertia, I fell back into my usual way of life without knowing it.Like a slave who enjoys a fictitious liberty in his sleep, and when he begins to suspect that his freedom is but a dream and dreads waking up, he complicates these pleasurable visions in order to be deceived for a long time. In the same way, I myself have fallen back into my old ideas without knowing it, and I am afraid to wake up from this stupor, and I am afraid that the hard work that will follow after this restful tranquility will not only fail. What light did it bring to me in understanding the truth? On the contrary, even all the dark clouds that had just been stirred up over these difficult problems could not clear it up.