Meditations René Descartes First Meditation

First Meditation:
On what can be called into doubt

Some years ago I was struck by how many false things I completely those who have deceived us even once.
had believed, and by how doubtful was the structure of [The next paragraph presents a series of considerations back and
beliefs that I had based on them. I realized that if I wanted forth. It is set out here as a discussion between two people, but that isn’t
to establish anything in the sciences that was stable and how Descartes presented it.]
likely to last, I needed—just once in my life—to demolish Hopeful: Yet although the senses sometimes deceive us
everything completely and start again from the foundations. about objects that are very small or distant, that doesn’t
It looked like an enormous task, and I decided to wait until apply to my belief that I am here, sitting by the fire, wearing
I was old enough to be sure that there was nothing to be a winter dressing-gown, holding this piece of paper in my
gained from putting it off any longer. I have now delayed hands, and so on. It seems to be quite impossible to doubt
it for so long that I have no excuse for going on planning beliefs like these, which come from the senses. Another
to do it rather than getting to work. So today I have set all example: how can I doubt that these hands or this whole
my worries aside and arranged for myself a clear stretch of body are mine? To doubt such things I would have to liken
free time. I am here quite alone, and at last I will devote myself to brain-damaged madmen who are convinced they
myself, sincerely and without holding back, to demolishing are kings when really they are paupers, or say they are
my opinions. dressed in purple when they are naked, or that they are
I can do this without showing that all my beliefs are false, pumpkins, or made of glass. Such people are insane, and I
which is probably more than I could ever manage. My reason would be thought equally mad if I modelled myself on them.
tells me that as well as withholding assent from propositions Doubtful (sarcastically): What a brilliant piece of reason-
that are obviously •false, I should also withhold it from ones ing! As if I were not a man who sleeps at night and often has
that are •not completely certain and indubitable. So all I all the same experiences while asleep as madmen do when
need, for the purpose of rejecting all my opinions, is to find awake—indeed sometimes even more improbable ones. Often
in each of them at least some reason for doubt. I can do in my dreams I am convinced of just such familiar events—
this without going through them one by one, which would that I am sitting by the fire in my dressing-gown—when in
take forever: once the foundations of a building have been fact I am lying undressed in bed!
undermined, the rest collapses of its own accord; so I will Hopeful: Yet right now my eyes are certainly wide open
go straight for the basic principles on which all my former when I look at this piece of paper; I shake my head and it
beliefs rested. isn’t asleep; when I rub one hand against the other, I do it
Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has deliberately and know what I am doing. This wouldn’t all
come to me through my senses. But occasionally I have happen with such clarity to someone asleep.
found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust

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Meditations René Descartes First Meditation

Doubtful: Indeed! As if I didn’t remember other occasions things—whether they really exist in nature or not—contain
when I have been tricked by exactly similar thoughts while something certain and indubitable. For whether I am awake
asleep! As I think about this more carefully, I realize that or asleep, two plus three makes five, and a square has only
there is never any reliable way of distinguishing being awake four sides. It seems impossible to suspect that such obvious
from being asleep. This discovery makes me feel dizzy, [joke:] truths might be false.
which itself reinforces the notion that I may be asleep! However, I have for many years been sure that there is
Suppose then that I am dreaming—it isn’t true that I, an all-powerful God who made me to be the sort of creature
with my eyes open, am moving my head and stretching out that I am. How do I know that he hasn’t brought it about
my hands. Suppose, indeed that I don’t even have hands or that there is no earth, no sky, nothing that takes up space,
any body at all. Still, it has to be admitted that the visions no shape, no size, no place, while making sure that all these
that come in sleep are like paintings: they must have been things appear to me to exist? Anyway, I sometimes think
made as copies of real things; so at least these general kinds that others go wrong even when they think they have the
of things— eyes, head, hands and the body as a whole—must most perfect knowledge; so how do I know that I myself don’t
be real and not imaginary. For even when painters try to go wrong every time I add two and three or count the sides
depict sirens and satyrs with the most extraordinary bodies, of a square? Well, ·you might say·, God would not let me
they simply jumble up the limbs of different kinds of real be deceived like that, because he is said to be supremely
animals, rather than inventing natures that are entirely good. But, ·I reply·, if God’s goodness would stop him from
new. If they do succeed in thinking up something completely letting me be deceived •all the time, you would expect it to
fictitious and unreal—not remotely like anything ever seen stop him from allowing me to be deceived even •occasionally;
before—at least the colours used in the picture must be real. yet clearly I sometimes am deceived.
Similarly, although these general kinds of things— eyes, Some people would deny the existence of such a powerful
head, hands and so on—could be imaginary, there is no God rather than believe that everything else is uncertain.
denying that certain even simpler and more universal kinds Let us grant them—for purposes of argument—that there
of things are real. These are the elements out of which we is no God, and theology is fiction. On their view, then, I
make all our mental images of things—the true and also the am a product of fate or chance or a long chain of causes
false ones. and effects. But the less powerful they make my original
These simpler and more universal kinds include body, cause, the more likely it is that I am so imperfect as to be
and extension; the shape of extended things; their quantity, deceived all the time—because deception and error seem to
size and number; the places things can be in, the time be imperfections. Having no answer to these arguments, I
through which they can last, and so on. am driven back to the position that doubts can properly be
So it seems reasonable to conclude that physics, astron- raised about any of my former beliefs. I don’t reach this
omy, medicine, and all other sciences dealing with things conclusion in a flippant or casual manner, but on the basis
that have complex structures are doubtful; while arithmetic, of powerful and well thought-out reasons. So in future, if I
geometry and other studies of the simplest and most general want to discover any certainty, I must withhold my assent

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Meditations René Descartes Second Meditation

from these former beliefs just as carefully as I withhold it ning demon has done all he can to deceive me—rather than
from obvious falsehoods. this being done by God, who is supremely good and the
It isn’t enough merely to have noticed this, though; I must source of truth. I shall think that the sky, the air, the
make an effort to remember it. My old familiar opinions earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are
keep coming back, and against my will they capture my merely dreams that the demon has contrived as traps for my
belief. It is as though they had a right to a place in my judgment. I shall consider myself as having no hands or eyes,
belief-system as a result of long occupation and the law of or flesh, or blood or senses, but as having falsely believed
custom. These habitual opinions of mine are indeed highly that I had all these things. I shall stubbornly persist in this
probable; although they are in a sense doubtful, as I have train of thought; and even if I can’t learn any truth, I shall at
shown, it is more reasonable to believe than to deny them. least do what I can do, which is to be on my guard against
But if I go on viewing them in that light I shall never get out accepting any falsehoods, so that the deceiver—however
of the habit of confidently assenting to them. To conquer powerful and cunning he may be—will be unable to affect me
that habit, therefore, I had better switch right around and in the slightest. This will be hard work, though, and a kind
pretend (for a while) that these former opinions of mine are of laziness pulls me back into my old ways. Like a prisoner
utterly false and imaginary. I shall do this until I have who dreams that he is free, starts to suspect that it is merely
something to counter-balance the weight of old opinion, a dream, and wants to go on dreaming rather than waking
and the distorting influence of habit no longer prevents me up, so I am content to slide back into my old opinions; I
from judging correctly. However far I go in my distrustful fear being shaken out of them because I am afraid that my
attitude, no actual harm will come of it, because my project peaceful sleep may be followed by hard labour when I wake,
won’t affect how I •act, but only how I •go about acquiring and that I shall have to struggle not in the light but in the
knowledge. imprisoning darkness of the problems I have raised.
So I shall suppose that some malicious, powerful, cun-

Second Meditation:
The nature of the human mind, and how it is better known than the body

Yesterday’s meditation raised doubts—ones that are too whirlpool that tumbles him around so that he can neither
serious to be ignored—which I can see no way of resolving. stand on the bottom nor swim to the top. However, I shall
I feel like someone who is suddenly dropped into a deep force my way up, and try once more to carry out the project