Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body — Descartes — John Shaqi
Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes · en
I am a _Thinking Thing_, that is to say, _doubting_, _affirming_,
_denying_, _understanding_ few things, _ignorant_ of many things,
_willing_, _nilling_, _imagining_ also, and _sensitive_. For (as before
I have noted) though perhaps whatever I _imagine_, or am sensible of,
as without me, _Is not_; yet that _manner_ of _thinking_ which I
call _sense_ and _imagination_ (as they are only certain _Modes_ of
_Thinking_) I am certain are in Me. So that in these few Words I have
mention’d whatever I _know_, or at least Whatever as yet I _perceive_ my
self to _know_.
Now will I look about me more carefully to see Whether there Be not some
other Thing in Me, of Which I have not yet taken Notice. I am sure That
I am a _Thinking Thing_, and therefore Do not I know what is Required to
make _certain_ of any Thing? I Answer, that in this My _first knowledge_
’tis Nothing but a _clear_, and _distinct perception_ of What I affirm,
Which would not be sufficient to make me _certain_ of the _Truth_ of
a Thing, if it were _Possible_ that any thing that I so _clearly_ and
_distinctly_ Perceive should be _false_. Wherefore I may lay this Down as
a _Principle_. _Whatever I Clearly and Distinctly perceive is certainly
True._
But I have formerly Admitted of many Things as very _Certain_ and
_manifest_, Which I afterwards found to be _doubtful_. Therefore What
sort of Things were they? _Viz._ Heaven, Earth, Stars, and all other
things which I perceived by my _Senses_. But What did I Perceive of
These _Clearly? Viz._ That I had the _Ideas_ or _Thoughts_ of these
things in my mind, and at Present I cannot deny that I have these _Ideas_
in Me. But there was some other thing Which I affirm’d, and Which (by
Reason of the common Way of Belief) I thought that I _Clearly_ Perceived;
Which nevertheless, I did not really Perceive; And that was, that there
were Certain Things _Without Me_ from whence these _Ideas Proceeded_, and
to which they were exactly like. And this it was, Wherein I was either
_Deceived_, or if by Chance I Judged _truly_, yet it Proceeded not from
the strength of my _Perception_.