Chapter 8 Fourth Meditation on Truth and Error

In the past few days, I have been used to getting rid of my spirit from the senses, and I happen to see that there are few things about physicality that we know accurately, and there are more things about human spirit that we know , we know much more about God Himself, so that I now have no difficulty in turning my thoughts from considerations of the sensible or imaginable to considerations of purely spiritual things which are quite divorced from matter. As for the human spirit, since it is a thinking thing, a thing without length, breadth, and extension, and without any physicality, my concept is of course clearer than any conception of physical things.And when I consider that I doubt, that is to say, that I am an imperfect and dependent being, the idea of ​​a complete and independent being arises quite clearly in me, and also is the idea of ​​God; and the mere fact that this idea exists in me, or that I am with this idea, exists, I conclude that God exists and that my existence is entirely dependent on him at every moment of my life. Such a conclusion, so obvious, that I do not think there is anything that can be more definitely and more reliably known to the human mind than this.I therefore feel that I have discovered a path by which we can go from contemplating the true God (in whom all the treasures of science and wisdom are contained) to understanding the rest of the universe.

For, first of all, I see that he must not deceive me, for there is a certain incompleteness in all deception; and even if being able to deceive seems to mark some tact and ability, yet to want to deceive proves beyond doubt a defect or malice.Therefore in God there can be no deception. Next, I experienced in myself a certain faculty of judgment which, like everything else I possessed, I had undoubtedly received from God; Surely it has not given me that faculty of judgment which keeps me mistaken in its proper use.I think, therefore, that if it does not follow from this that I can never be mistaken, there can be no doubt about this truth; for if all that I have comes from God, if He has not My ability to be wrong③, then it should be said that I should never be wrong.Truly, when I thought of God alone, I found no wrong or false reason in my mind; but, later, when I came back to myself, experience taught me that I would still make countless mistakes and in pursuing the causes of these errors carefully, I noticed that not only did the idea of ​​a real and positive God, or a supremely perfect being, arise in my thinking, but at the same time, so to speak, also A negative, "nothing" idea, that is, the exact opposite of all types of perfection; and I seem to be intermediate between God and nothing, that is, I am placed in the Supreme Being and non-being, which makes me, so far as I am born of a supreme being, nothing in me that can lead me to error; but if I regard myself as Having somehow shared nothing or non-being, that is, since I myself am not the Supreme Being⑦, I am in a state of infinite imperfection, so I need not wonder that I can be mistaken.

①Second edition in French: "Secondly, I know from my own experience that I have in me a certain faculty of judging, or of distinguishing true from false, which I have undoubtedly received from God. , as what is in my heart and what I have is received from God; and as he cannot possibly mean to deceive me, then surely he has not given me that faculty to use it rightly. The timing is always wrong." - Translator ② "This truth", the second French edition is: "About this". ③ "ability", the second French version is "any function". ④ French second edition: "When I see myself as coming from God alone, when I turn fully to him".

⑤ "later", the second edition of French is "immediately following". ⑥ "Careful", the second edition of French is missing. ⑦In the second French edition, there is another sentence below: "And I lack a lot of things". In doing so, I realized that error, as an error, does not depend on anything real of God, but is merely a defect, and that in order to make an error I need not have a God dedicated to it. What power is given to me for purpose,1 but I sometimes get it wrong because the power God has given me to distinguish between true and false is not infinite to me.

① "ability", the second edition of French is "function". Even so, I am not entirely satisfied; for error is not a pure negation, that is to say, not a mere defect or lack of some perfection which I should not have, but a lack of knowledge which I seem to have.Moreover, in considering the nature of God, I do not think it possible to say that he has given me some function which is not perfect, that is to say, lacking some necessary perfection; If it is true that the more perfect is the workmanship that comes out of his hands the more skillfully and skillfully he works, then we can imagine what kind of things come out of the Sovereign Creator of all things in which Isn't it perfect and utterly delicate in every part? ① Of course, there is no doubt that God has not created me so that I can never be mistaken; and it is true that he always wants the best.So is it better for me to be wrong than not to be wrong? ②

① French second edition: "Then what is created by this supreme Creator of the universe that is not perfect and utterly ingenious in every part?" ②French second edition: "So is it better that I can be wrong than that I can't be wrong?" After thinking it over, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I need not wonder why God does what he does, because my intellect cannot comprehend; Perhaps seeing many other things and not being able to understand why and how God produced them.For, knowing that my nature is utterly feeble and finite, while God's is, on the contrary, vast, unfathomable, and infinite, I need not trouble myself to see that there is infinity in his potentialities. The things, the causes of which are beyond the power of my mind to know.This reason alone is sufficient to convince me that all such causes which men are accustomed to trace from ends cannot be applied to physical or natural things; Purpose, I think that is simply a matter of extreme arrogance.

① French second edition: "I can't understand". ②French second edition: "And it should not be doubted that he exists, because I may see many other things exist through experience, although I cannot understand why and how God made them." Besides, it occurred to me that when people inquire whether God's works are complete, they should not look at one creation in isolation, but should look at all creations in general.For, if it were unique,2 it might have some reason to seem quite incomplete; but if it is regarded as a part of the whole of the universe, it is very perfect in its nature.And, since I willfully doubt everything, though I have only positively known my existence and the existence of God, since I have recognized the infinite potentialities of God, I cannot deny that he produces many other things too, or At least it can produce those things, so I cannot deny that I exist and are placed in the world as a part of the whole of all that exists.After this, looking at me a little further, and considering what were my faults (which alone proved my inadequacy), I found that this was due to two causes, namely, the cognitive faculty of my mind and the choice ability② or due to my free will5, that is to say, due to my intellect, but also due to my will.For by the intellect alone I neither affirm nor deny anything, but only apprehend ideas of what I can apprehend, which I can either affirm or deny.But when the intellect is so closely examined, it may be said that there is absolutely no error to be found in it, in the sense of the word "error" itself.And, though there may be an infinite number of things in the world in which my intellect has no ideas, it does not follow that it lacks them, as if it owes something to its nature, but only that it does not have them. ; for, in fact, there is no reason why God should have given me greater and wider faculties of knowledge than he has given me; It should not therefore be assumed that he should have put in each work all the perfection that he could have put in several works.I can't blame God for not giving me a fairly wide and complete free will or will, because in fact I have experienced that this free will or will is very large and very broad, and no boundaries can limit it.And I think it's remarkable here that, of all the other things in my mind, there is nothing bigger and more complete.Because, for example, if I consider the comprehension function in my mind, I think it is very narrow, very limited, while at the same time I give me the idea of ​​another function, which is much wider, even infinite. and from the mere fact that I can furnish me with an idea of ​​it, I have no difficulty in recognizing it as belonging to the nature of God.If I examine memory in the same way, or imagination, or any other faculties⑥, I cannot find any power⑦in me that is not very small, not limited, and in God is not vast, not infinite. of.I experience that in me only the will7 is so great that I do not comprehend that there is anything greater and wider than it.This made me realize that it is mainly the will that makes me bear the image and likeness of God.For though the will is incomparably greater in God than in me, both in knowledge and power (for knowledge and power combined in the will make the will more powerful and effective), or In things (for the will extends infinitely to more things), it does not seem to me greater if I consider it formally and properly in itself.For it consists merely in what we can or cannot do about the same thing (that is, to affirm it or deny it, to follow it or to flee from it), or rather it consists only in affirming or denying, following or escaping from reason What is offered to us, we act as if we do not feel any external force moving us.For, in order to be free, it is not necessary for me to be indifferent in choosing one or the other between two opposites; good and true, or because God so governs the interior of my mind), the freer I choose, and take this one; and, of course, God's grace and natural knowledge do not lessen my Increased and strengthened my freedom.The indifference I feel, therefore, when I have no reason to compel me to lean toward one side rather than the other, is but the lowest degree of freedom.

This indifference is not so much a perfection in the will as a defect in knowledge; for if I always know clearly what is true and what is good, I I will never take the trouble to figure out what kind of judgment and what kind of choice I should take, so that I will be completely free and never hold an indifferent attitude. ① That is, "something".Christianity believes that everything in the world was created by God, so it is also called "creation". ②French second edition: "If only in the world." ③ French second edition: "They are still very complete."

④ "ability", the second edition of French is "function". ——Translator ⑤ "Free will" is "free decision" (librearbirre, or francarbitre) in French. ⑥French second edition: "or any other function in me, I can't find any one". ⑦ French second edition: "Only will or only the freedom of free will". ⑧French second edition: "Knowledge and ability combine with will and make will". From all this I realized that the cause of my error was neither the faculty of the will itself (which I had received from God), for its nature is very extensive and perfect; nor the faculty of understanding or comprehension. , because, since I understand with the power God has given me, there is no doubt that what I understand I understand as it is, and I cannot be mistaken on this basis.So where did my error come from?From this, namely, that since the will is much larger and wider than the intellect, and I do not impose the same restrictions on the will, but extend it to things beyond my comprehension, the will has no effect on these things since It doesn't matter, so I easily fall into confusion, and choose the evil as the good, or the false as the real. ①This makes me mistaken and guilty.

① French second edition: "And the false as true, the evil as good to choose." For example, in the past few days I have checked whether something exists in the world,1 and realized that just because I checked this question, it is obvious that I myself exist, so I have to make such a judgment , that a thing I grasp so clearly is true, not because some external cause compels me to do so, but simply because of a great clarity in my There is a strong inclination in my will; and the less indifferent I feel, the more free I am to believe.On the contrary, at present I not only know that I exist because I am a thinking thing, but a certain idea of ​​the corporeal nature arises in me, which makes me doubt this thinking nature in me. , or rather, whether the thing that I am ② is different from the nature of this corporeality, or whether the two are one thing.I assume now that I do not yet know any reason for believing the latter over the former.So I am completely indifferent to denying it or affirming it, or even passing any judgment.

① French second edition: "Really exists". ② French second edition: "I am myself". And this indifference extends not only to what the intellect is absolutely ignorant of, but generally also (when the will takes these things into account) to the extent that the intellect cannot discover all these things with perfect clarity.For, however likely it may be that I am inclined to the guesses I take when I judge something, the mere grounds for the knowledge that they are nothing but guesses, rather than solid and indubitable, Just enough to give me an opportunity to judge otherwise.I've experienced quite a lot these days when I assume false everything that I used to take to be quite true, and from this alone I can see why we take a certain skeptical attitude toward these things. But if I don't judge what I don't see clearly enough, then obviously I use it well, and I'm not mistaken.But if I decide to deny it or affirm it, then I am no longer ② using my free will as I should; if I affirm something that is not real, then obviously I am mistaken.Even if I am right, it is only by chance that I am still bound to be wrong, to use my free will incorrectly.Because, the light of nature tells us, the knowledge of the reason must always precede the decision of the will.It is in the incorrect use of this defect in free will that the form of constitutive error lies.I say that the defect lies in the use (for the use is my use), not in the power I have received from God, nor in the use from God.For, of course, I have no reason to blame God for not giving me a more capable ④wisdom, or a greater ⑤natural light than the one I got from him, because the fact⑥ does not understand Infinite⑦things, this is the nature of the finite intellect, a nature inherently finite.But I have every reason to be grateful to him, because he never owed me anything, but gave me a small amount of completeness in me, and I never had the wrong feeling to suppose that he should not owe me anything else that he did not give me. Completion canceled or not given to me.I have no reason to complain that he has given me a will larger than the intellect, because the will consists in one thing only, and its subject seems to be indivisible8, so it seems from its nature, whether from it Take anything away and it will be destroyed.And, of course, the wider it spreads, the more I am grateful for the kindness of the man who gave it to me.Nor, finally, should I blame God for the actions of my will, that is to say, for those judgments which I have erred, since they depend on God and are therefore entirely true and absolutely good; In this sense, there is more perfection in my nature that I can perform these acts than that I cannot perform them.As for the defect (the reason for the form of error and crime lies in the defect), it needs no help from God, because it is not a thing or a being, and because if it is connected to God, God is regarded as Its cause, then it cannot be called a defect, but should be called a negation, according to the meaning of these two words given by the academy. ① "Obviously I used this well", the second French version is: "Obviously I did it right". ② "again", the second edition of French is missing. ③ "ability", the second edition of French is "function". ④ "more talented", the second French version is "wider". ⑤ "Bigger", the second French version is: "more complete". ⑥ "In fact", the second edition of French is missing. ⑦ "endless", the second French version is "many". ⑧French second edition: "And as in an indivisible thing". For in fact it is not in God's power to say that God does not give me liberty to judge or not to judge about certain things which He has not put into my intellect a clear and distinct perception. An imperfection on the part of me, and no doubt on my part, that I did not make good use of this liberty, because I was the one who judged rashly in things which I did not understand clearly and vaguely. However, I see that although I have been free and have a little knowledge, that is to say, God is giving my reason a clear and clear wisdom, so that I don't need the slightest effort on everything. When thinking about it, or he just deeply engraved in my memory the determination that I will never judge anything when I don't understand it clearly, so that I will never forget it, then he would have been It's so easy that I never get it wrong.And I saw that if only I could see myself as unique, as if I were the only one in the world, and if God had made me infallible, I would be much more complete than I am.But I cannot deny that there is a sense in which some parts of the universe are inevitably wrong than all parts, and have greater perfection.And if God, when he cast me into the world, hadn't intended to place me in the ranks of the noblest and most perfect things, I have no right to complain.Even I have reason to be satisfied: if he had not given me the power not to make mistakes by means of the first method I have just said (which depends on a clear and distinct perception of everything I can think about ), he at least left another way in my ability, which is to make up my mind not to make any judgments before I figure out the truth of the matter.For, though I see this defect in my nature, that I cannot continually connect my mind to one and the same thought, yet I still, by a single-minded and often repeated meditation, It can be imprinted so strongly on my memory that I cannot fail to recall it whenever I need it, and by this means the habit of infallibility can be acquired.And since therein lies the greatest and chief perfection of man, I think ⑤ I benefited from this "contemplation" because I discovered the cause of falsity and error ⑥. ① French second edition: "Better than other parts make mistakes, than if they all make mistakes". ② "If", the second edition of French is missing. ③ "ability", the second edition of French is "completion". ④ "See in my nature", the second French version is "Experience in me". ⑤ "I think", the second French version is "I think today". ⑥ French Second Edition "Errors and Falsehoods". And, of course, there can be no other reason than the one I have explained.For whenever I confine my will to the sphere of my knowledge, let it not judge of anything but that which reason clearly and distinctly furnishes it, that I may not be mistaken; For whatever is clearly and clearly understood to me is without a doubt something real and certain,2 so that it cannot be born out of nothing, but must have God as its author.God, I say, who is supremely perfect, can never be the cause of error; therefore it must be asserted that such an understanding or such a judgment is true. ① "What I explained", the second French version is "What I just explained". ② "Real and certain things", the second edition of French is "something". Also, today I know not only what I must avoid in order not to make mistakes, but also what I must do to know the truth.For if I set my attention sufficiently upon those things which I comprehend fully, if I separate them from the rest which I comprehend only vaguely, of course I shall Know the truth.This is what I will pay careful attention to in the future. ① "Understand", the second edition of French is "understand".