Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his bodyDescartes, René
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes, René
Descartes, René, 1596-1650; First philosophy; God -- Proof, Ontological; Knowledge, Theory of; Metaphysics; Methodology
Neither was it without Reason that _I_ Judged, _That Body_ (which by a
_peculiar right I_ call my _Own_) to be _more nighly_ appertaining to
_Me_ then any _other Body_. For from It, as from other _Bodies_, _I_
can never be _seperated_, _I_ was _sensible_ of all _Appetites_ and
_Affections in It_ and _for It_, and lastly _I_ perceived _pleasure_ and
_Pain_ in its Parts, and not in any other Without it. But why from the
_sense_ of Pain a certain _Grief_, and from the _sense_ of _pleasure_ a
certain _Joy_ of the _Mind_ should arise, or Why that _Gnawing_ of the
_stomach_, Which _I_ call _Hunger_, should put me in mind of _Eating_, or
the _driness_ of my _Throat_ of _Drinking_, _I_ can give no other Reason
but _that I am taught so by Nature_. For to my thinking there is no
_Affinity_ or _Likeness_ between that _Gnawing_ of the _Stomach_, and the
desire of _Eating_, or between the _sense_ of _Pain_, and the _sorrowful
thought_ from thence arising. But in this as in all other _judgments_
that I made of _sensible objects_, I seem’d to be taught by _Nature_, for
I first perswaded my self that things were _so_ or _so_, before ever I
enquired into a Reason that may prove it.
[Sidenote: _The Reasons why I doubted my senses._]
[Sidenote: _Medit. I._]
But afterwards I discover’d many experiments, wherein my _senses_ so
grosly deceived me, that I would never trust them again; for Towers
which seem’d _Round_ a far off, nigh at hand appear’d _square_, and
_large_ Statues on their tops seem’d _small_ to those that stood on the
ground; and in numberless other things, I perceived the _judgements_
of my _outward senses_ were _deceived_: and not of my _outward_ only,
but of my _inward senses_ also; for what is more _intimate_ or _inward_
than _Pain_? And yet I have heard from those, whose Arm or Leg was cut
off, that they have felt _pain_ in that part which they _wanted_, and
therefore I am not _absolutely certain_ that any part of me is affected
with _pain_, tho I _feel pain_ therein. To these I have lately added
two very _general Reasons_ of _doubt_; The first was, that while I was
_awake_, I could not believe my self to perceive any thing, which I could
not think my self sometimes to perceive, tho I were _a sleep_; And seeing
I cannot believe, that what I seem to perceive in my _sleep_ proceeds
from _outward Objects_, what greater Reason have I to think so of what I
perceive whilst I am _awake_? The other Cause of Doubt was, that seeing
I know not the _Author_ of my _Being_ (or at least I then _supposed_ my
self not to know him) what reason is there but that I may be so ordered
by _Nature_ as to be _deceived_ even in those things which appear’d to me
most _true_. And as to the _Reasons_, which induced me to give _credit_
to _sensible_ Things, ’twas easie to return an answer thereto, for
finding by experience, that I was impelled by _Nature_ to many Things,
which _Reason_ disswaded me from, I thought I should not far trust what I
was taught by _Nature_.
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