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🟡 Meditations on First Philosophy (Full Audiobook) | Ren Descartes · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

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  Speaker 1: Meditations on First Philosophy, Letter of Dedication. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Meditations on First Philosophy by Renee Descartes translation John Weisch,
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  Speaker 1: Letter of Dedication to the very sage and illustrious the
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  Speaker 1: Dean and doctors of the Sacred Faculty of Theology of Paris. Gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: the motive which impels me to present this treatise to
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  Speaker 1: you is so reasonable, and when you shall learn its design,
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  Speaker 1: I am confident that you also will consider that there
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  Speaker 1: is ground so valid for your taking it under your protection,
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  Speaker 1: that I can in no way better recommend it to
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  Speaker 1: you than by briefly stating the end which I propose
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  Speaker 1: to myself in it. I have always been of opinion
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  Speaker 1: that the two questions respecting God and the soul were
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  Speaker 1: the chief of those that ought to be determined by
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  Speaker 1: help of philosophy rather than of theology. For although to
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  Speaker 1: us the faithful, it be sufficient to hold as matters
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  Speaker 1: of faith that the human soul does not perish with
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  Speaker 1: the body, and that God exists, it, yet assuredly seems impossible, ever,
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  Speaker 1: to persuade infidels of the reality of any religion, or
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  Speaker 1: almost even any moral virtue, unless, first of all those
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  Speaker 1: two things be proved to them by natural reason. And
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  Speaker 1: since in this life there are frequently greater rewards held
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  Speaker 1: out to vice than to virtue, few would prefer the
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  Speaker 1: right to the useful if they were restrained neither by
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  Speaker 1: the fear of God nor the expectation of another life.
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  Speaker 1: And although it is quite true that the existence of
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  Speaker 1: God is to be believed since it is taught in
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  Speaker 1: the Sacred Scriptures, and that, on the other hand, the
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  Speaker 1: Sacred Scriptures are to be believed because they come from God.
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  Speaker 1: For since faith is a gift of God, the same
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  Speaker 1: being who bestows grace to enable us to believe other things,
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  Speaker 1: can likewise impart of it to enable us to believe
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  Speaker 1: his own existence. Nevertheless, this cannot be submitted to infidels,
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  Speaker 1: who would consider that the reasoning proceeded in a circle.
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  Speaker 1: And indeed, I have observed that you, with all the
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  Speaker 1: other theologians, not only affirmed the sufficiency of natural reason
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  Speaker 1: for the proof of the existence of God, but also
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  Speaker 1: that it may be inferred from sacred scripture that the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of God is much clearer than of many created things,
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  Speaker 1: and that it is really so easy of acquisition as
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  Speaker 1: to leave those who do not possess it blameworthy. This
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  Speaker 1: is manifest from these words of the Book of Wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: chapter eight, where it is said, howbeit, they are not
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  Speaker 1: to be excused, for if their understanding was so great
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  Speaker 1: that they could discern the world and the creatures, why
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  Speaker 1: did they not rather find out the Lord thereof? And
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  Speaker 1: in Romans chapter one it is said that they are
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  Speaker 1: without excuse. And again in the same place by these
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  Speaker 1: words that which may be known of God is manifest
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  Speaker 1: in them. We seem to be admonished that all which
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  Speaker 1: can be known of God may be made manifest by
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  Speaker 1: reasons obtained from no other source than the inspection of
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  Speaker 1: our own minds. I have therefore thought that it would
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  Speaker 1: not be unbecoming in me to inquire how and by
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  Speaker 1: what way, without going out of ourselves. God may be
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  Speaker 1: more easily and certainly known than the things of the world.
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  Speaker 1: And as regards the soul, although many have judged that
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  Speaker 1: its nature could not be easily discovered, and some have
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  Speaker 1: even ventured to say that human reason led to the
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  Speaker 1: conclusion that it perished with the body, and that the
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  Speaker 1: contrary opinion could be held through faith alone. Nevertheless, since
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  Speaker 1: the latter in Council held under Leo the tenth in
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  Speaker 1: Session eight, condemns these and expressly enjoins Christian philosophers to
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  Speaker 1: refute their arguments and establish the truth according to their ability,
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  Speaker 1: I have ventured to attempt it in this work. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: I am aware that most of the irreligious deny the
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  Speaker 1: existence of God and the distinctness of the human soul
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  Speaker 1: from the body, for no other reason than because these points,
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  Speaker 1: as they allege, have never as yet been demonstrated. Now,
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  Speaker 1: although I am by no means of their opinion, but
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  Speaker 1: on the contrary, hold that almost all the proofs which
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  Speaker 1: have been adduced on these questions by great men possess,
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  Speaker 1: when rightly understood, the force of demonstrations, and that it
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  Speaker 1: is next to impossible to discover new Yet, there is
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  Speaker 1: I apprehend no more useful service to be performed in
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  Speaker 1: philosophy than if some one were once and for all
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  Speaker 1: carefully to seek out the best of these reasons and
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  Speaker 1: expound them so accurately and clearly, that for the future
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  Speaker 1: it might be manifest to all that they are real demonstrations.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, since many persons were greatly desirous of this,
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  Speaker 1: who knew that I had cultivated a certain method of
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  Speaker 1: resolving all kinds of difficulty in the sciences, which is
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  Speaker 1: not indeed new, there being nothing older than truth, but
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  Speaker 1: of which they were aware I had made successful use
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  Speaker 1: in other instances, I judged it to be my duty
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  Speaker 1: to make trial of it also on the present matter. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the sum of what I have been able to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: on the subject is contained in this treatise. Not that
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  Speaker 1: I here essayed to collect all the diverse reasons which
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  Speaker 1: might be adduced as proofs on the subject, for this
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  Speaker 1: does not seem to be necessary unless on matters where
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  Speaker 1: no one proof of adequate certainty is to be had.
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  Speaker 1: But I treated the first and chief alone in such
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  Speaker 1: a manner that I should venture now to propose them
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  Speaker 1: as demonstrations of the highest certainty and evidence. And I
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  Speaker 1: will also add that they are such as to lead
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  Speaker 1: me to think that there is no way open to
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  Speaker 1: the mind of man by which proofs superior to them
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  Speaker 1: can ever be discovered. For the importance of the subject
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  Speaker 1: and the glory of God, to which all this relates
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  Speaker 1: constrain me to speak here somewhat more freely of myself
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  Speaker 1: than I have been accustomed to do. Nevertheless, whatever certitude
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  Speaker 1: and evidence I may find in these demonstrations, I cannot
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  Speaker 1: therefore persuade myself that they are leveled to the comprehension
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  Speaker 1: of all. But just as in geometry, there are many
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  Speaker 1: of the demonstrations of Archimedes, Apollonius, Pappus, and others, which,
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  Speaker 1: though received by all as evident, even uncertain, because indeed
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  Speaker 1: they manifestly contain nothing which considered by itself, it is
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  Speaker 1: not very easy to understand, and no consequence, that are
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  Speaker 1: inaccurately related to their antecedents are nevertheless understood by a
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  Speaker 1: very limited number, because they are somewhat long and demand
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  Speaker 1: the whole attention of the reader. So in the same way,
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  Speaker 1: although I consider the demonstrations of which I here make
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  Speaker 1: use to be equal or even superior to the geometrical
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  Speaker 1: incertitude and evidence, I am afraid nevertheless that they will
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  Speaker 1: not be adequately understood by many as well, because they
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  Speaker 1: are also somewhat long and involved, as chiefly because they
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  Speaker 1: require the mind to be entirely free from prejudice and
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  Speaker 1: able with ease to detach itself from the commerce of
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  Speaker 1: the senses and to speak the truth. The ability for
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  Speaker 1: metaphysical studies is less general than for those of geometry.
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  Speaker 1: And besides, there is still this difference, that, as in geometry,
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  Speaker 1: all are persuaded that nothing is usually advanced, of which
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  Speaker 1: there is not a certain demonstration. Those but partially versed
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  Speaker 1: in it err more frequently in assenting to what is
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  Speaker 1: false from a desire of seeming to understand it than
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  Speaker 1: in denying what is true. In philosophy, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: where it is believed that all is doubtful, few sincerely
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  Speaker 1: give themselves to the search after truth, and by far
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  Speaker 1: the greater numbers seek the reputation of bold thinkers by
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  Speaker 1: audaciously impugning such truths as are of the greatest moment.
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  Speaker 1: Hence it is that whatever force my reasonings may possess,
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  Speaker 1: yet because they belong to philosophy, I do not expect
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  Speaker 1: they will have much effect on the minds of men,
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  Speaker 1: unless you extend to them your patronage and approval. But
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: since your faculty is held in so great esteem by all,
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  Speaker 1: and since the name of Sorbone is of such authority,
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  Speaker 1: that not only in matters of faith, but even also
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  Speaker 1: in what regards human philosophy, as the judgment of no
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  Speaker 1: other society after the sacred counsels received so great deference,
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  Speaker 1: it being the universal conviction, that it is impossible elsewhere
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  Speaker 1: to find greater perspicacity and solidity, or greater wisdom and
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  Speaker 1: integrity in giving judgment. I doubt not if you but
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  Speaker 1: condescend to pay so much regard to this treatise as
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  Speaker 1: to be willing in the first place to correct it.
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  Speaker 1: For mindful not only of my humanity, but chiefly also
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  Speaker 1: of my ignorance, I do not affirm that it is
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  Speaker 1: free from errors. In the second place, to supply what
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  Speaker 1: is wanting in it, to perfect what is incomplete, and
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  Speaker 1: to give more ample illustration where it is demanded, or
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  Speaker 1: at least to indicate these defects to myself, that I
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  Speaker 1: may endeavor to remedy them. And finally, when the reasonings
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  Speaker 1: contained in it by which the existence of God and
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  Speaker 1: the distinction of the human soul from the body are established,
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  Speaker 1: shall have been brought to such degree of perspicuity as
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  Speaker 1: to be esteemed exact demonstrations of which I am assured
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  Speaker 1: they admit. If you condescend to accord them the authority
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  Speaker 1: of your approbation, and render a public testimony of their
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  Speaker 1: truth and certainty. I doubt not, I say, but that
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  Speaker 1: henceforth all the errors which have ever been entertained on
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  Speaker 1: these questions will very soon be effaced from the minds
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  Speaker 1: of men. For truth itself will readily lead the remainder
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  Speaker 1: of the ingenious and the learned to subscribe to your judgment,
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  Speaker 1: and your authority will cause the atheists, who are in
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  Speaker 1: general sculists rather than ingenious or learned, to lay aside
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of contradiction, and lead them, perhaps to do
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  Speaker 1: battle in their own persons for reasonings which they find
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  Speaker 1: considered demonstrations by all men of genius, lest they should
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  Speaker 1: seem not to understand them. And finally, the rest of
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  Speaker 1: mankind will readily trust to so many testimonies, and there
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  Speaker 1: will no longer be any one who will venture to
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  Speaker 1: doubt either the existence of God or the real distinction
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  Speaker 1: of mind and body. It is for you, in your
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  Speaker 1: singular wisdom, to judge of the importance of the establishment
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  Speaker 1: of such beliefs, who are cognizant of the disorders which
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  Speaker 1: doubt of these truths produces. But it would not here
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  Speaker 1: become me to command at greater length the cause of
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  Speaker 1: God and of religion to you, who have always proved
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  Speaker 1: the strongest support of the Catholic Church and letter of dedication.
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  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. Preface to the reader.
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  Speaker 1: This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Meditations on First Philosophy by Renet
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  Speaker 1: Deckhart Preface to the reader. I have already slightly touched
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  Speaker 1: upon the questions respecting the existence of God and the
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  Speaker 1: nature of the human soul in the Discourse on the
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  Speaker 1: Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in
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  Speaker 1: the Sciences, published in French in the year sixteen thirty seven,
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  Speaker 1: not however, with the design of their treating of them fully,
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  Speaker 1: but only as it were, in passing that I might
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  Speaker 1: learn from the judgment of my readers in what way
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  Speaker 1: I should afterward handle them. For these questions appeared to
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  Speaker 1: me to be of such moment as to be worthy
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  Speaker 1: of being considered more than once. And the path which
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  Speaker 1: I follow in discussing them is so little trodden and
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  Speaker 1: so remote from the ordinary route, that I thought it
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  Speaker 1: would not be expedient to illustrate it at greater length
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  Speaker 1: in French and in a discourse that might be read
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  Speaker 1: by all, lest even the more feeble minds should believe
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  Speaker 1: that this path might be entered upon by them. But,
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  Speaker 1: as in the Discourse on method, I had requested all
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  Speaker 1: who might find aught meriting censure on my writings to
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  Speaker 1: do me the favor of pointing it out to me,
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  Speaker 1: I may state that no objections worthy of remark have
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  Speaker 1: been alleged against what I then said on these questions,
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  Speaker 1: except to to which I will here briefly reply before
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  Speaker 1: undertaking their more detailed discussion. The first objection is that
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  Speaker 1: though while the human mind reflects on itself, it does
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  Speaker 1: not perceive that it is any other than a thinking thing,
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  Speaker 1: it does not follow so that its nature or essence
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  Speaker 1: consists only in its being a thing which thinks, so
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  Speaker 1: that the word only shall exclude all other things which
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  Speaker 1: might also perhaps be said to pertain to the nature
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  Speaker 1: of the mind. To this objection, I reply that it
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  Speaker 1: was not my intention in that place to exclude these,
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  Speaker 1: according to the order of truth, in the matter of
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  Speaker 1: which I did not then treat but only according to
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  Speaker 1: the order of thought perception, so that my meaning was
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  Speaker 1: that I clearly apprehended nothing so far as I was conscious,
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  Speaker 1: as belonging to my essence, except that I was a
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  Speaker 1: thinking thing, or a thing possessing in itself the faculty
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  Speaker 1: of thinking. But I will show hereafter how from the
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  Speaker 1: consciousness that nothing besides thinking belongs to the essence of
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  Speaker 1: the mind, it follows that nothing else does, in truth
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  Speaker 1: belong to it. The second objection is that it does
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  Speaker 1: not follow from my possessing the idea of a thing
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  Speaker 1: more perfect than I am, that the idea itself is
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  Speaker 1: more perfect than myself, and much less that what is
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  Speaker 1: represented by the idea exists. But I reply that in
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  Speaker 1: the term idea there is here something equivocal, for it
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  Speaker 1: may be taken either materially for an act of the understanding,
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  Speaker 1: And in this sense it cannot be said to be
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  Speaker 1: more perfect than I or objectively, for the thing represented
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  Speaker 1: by that act, which, although it be not supposed to
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  Speaker 1: exist out of my understanding, may nevertheless be more perfect
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  Speaker 1: than myself by reason of its essence. But in the
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  Speaker 1: sequel of this treatise I will show more amply how
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  Speaker 1: from my possessing the idea of a thing more perfect
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  Speaker 1: than myself, it follows that this thing really exists. Besides
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  Speaker 1: these two objections, I have seen, indeed two treatises of
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  Speaker 1: sufficient length relating to the present matter. In these, however,
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  Speaker 1: my conclusions, much more than my premisses, were impugned, and
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  Speaker 1: that by arguments borrowed from the common places of the atheists.
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  Speaker 1: But as arguments of this sort can make no impression
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  Speaker 1: on the minds of those who shall rightly understand my reasonings,
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  Speaker 1: and as the judgments of many are so irrational and
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  Speaker 1: weak that they are persuaded rather by the opinions on
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  Speaker 1: a subject that are first presented to them, however false
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  Speaker 1: and opposed to reason they may be, than by a
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  Speaker 1: true and solid, but subsequently received refutation of them. I
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  Speaker 1: am unwilling here to reply to these strictures, from a
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  Speaker 1: dread of being in the first instance, obliged to state them.
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  Speaker 1: I will only say in general that all which the
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  Speaker 1: atheists commonly allege in favor of the non existence of
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  Speaker 1: God arises continually from one or the other of these
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  Speaker 1: two things, namely, either the ascription of human affections to
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  Speaker 1: deity or the undue attribution to our minds of so
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  Speaker 1: much vigor and wisdom that we may say to determine
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  Speaker 1: and comprehend both what God can and ought to do. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: all that is alleged by them will occasion us no difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: provided only we keep in remembrance that our minds must
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  Speaker 1: be considered finite, while deity is incomprehensible and infinite. Now
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  Speaker 1: that I have once in some measure made proof of
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  Speaker 1: the opinions of men regarding my work, I again undertake
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  Speaker 1: to treat of God and the human soul, and at
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  Speaker 1: the same time to discuss the principles of the entire
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  Speaker 1: First Philosophy, without however, expecting any commendation from the crowd
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  Speaker 1: for my endeavors or a wide circle of readers. On
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, I would advise none to read this work
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  Speaker 1: unless such as are able and willing to meditate with
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  Speaker 1: me in earnest to detach their minds from commerce with
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  Speaker 1: the senses, and likewise to deliver themselves from all prejudice.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: And individuals of this character are I well know, remarkably rare.
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  Speaker 1: But with regard to those who, without caring to comprehend
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the order and connection of the reasonings shall study only
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: detached clauses for the purpose of small but noisy criticism,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: as is the custom with many, I may say that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: such persons will not profit greatly by the reading of
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  Speaker 1: this treatise, And although perhaps they might find opportunity for
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: caveling in several places, they will yet hardly start any
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  Speaker 1: pressing objections or such as shall be deserving of reply.
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  Speaker 1: But since indeed I do not promise to satisfy others
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  Speaker 1: on all these subjects at first sight, nor arrogate so
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  Speaker 1: much to myself as to believe that I might have
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  Speaker 1: been able to foresee all that may be the source
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  Speaker 1: of difficulty to each one, I shall expound first of
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  Speaker 1: all in the Meditations, those considerations by which I feel
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  Speaker 1: persuaded that I have arrived at a certain and evident
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: knowledge of truth. In order that I may ascertain whether
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the reasonings which have prevailed with myself will also be
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: effectual in convincing others, I will then reply to the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: objections of some men illustrious for their genius and learning,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: to whom these meditations were sent for criticism before they
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  Speaker 1: were committed to the press. For these objections are so
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: numerous and varied that I venture to anticipate that nothing,
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  Speaker 1: at least nothing of any moment will readily occur to
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  Speaker 1: any mind which has not been touched upon in them. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: it is that I earnestly entreat my readers not to
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  Speaker 1: come to any judgment on the questions raised in the
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  Speaker 1: meditations until they have taken care to read the whole
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  Speaker 1: of the objections, with the relative replies and preface to
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  Speaker 1: the reader. This recording is in the public domain. Synopsis
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  Speaker 1: of the six following meditations. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Meditations
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  Speaker 1: on First Philosophy Byronet Descartes. Synopsis of the six following meditations.
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  Speaker 1: In the first meditation, I expound the grounds on which
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  Speaker 1: we may doubt in general of all things, and especially
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  Speaker 1: of material objects, so long at least as we have
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  Speaker 1: no other foundations for the sciences than those we have
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  Speaker 1: hitherto possessed now. Although the utility of a doubt so
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: general may not be manifest at first sight, it is
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  Speaker 1: nevertheless of the greatest, since it delivers us from all
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: prejudice and affords the easiest pathway by which the mind
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: may withdraw itself from the senses, and finally makes it
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  Speaker 1: impossible for us to doubt, wherever we afterward discover truth.
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  Speaker 1: In the second, the mind, which, in the exercise of
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  Speaker 1: the freedom peculiar to itself, supposes that no object is
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  Speaker 1: of the existence of which it has even the slightest doubt,
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  Speaker 1: finds that meanwhile it must itself exist. And this point
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  Speaker 1: is likewise of the highest moment, for the mind is
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  Speaker 1: thus enabled easily to distinguish what pertains to itself, that is,
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  Speaker 1: to the intellectual nature, from what is to be referred
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  Speaker 1: to the body. But since some perhaps will expect, at
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  Speaker 1: this stage of our progress a statement of the reasons
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: which establish the doctrine of the immortality of the soul,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I think it proper here to make such aware that
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: it was my aim to write nothing of which I
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: could not give exact demonstration, and that I therefore felt
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: myself obliged to adopt an order similar to that in
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: use among the geometers, namely, to premise all upon which
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the proposition in question depends, before coming to any conclusion
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: respecting it. Now, the first and chief prerequisite for the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the immortality of the soul is our being
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: able to form the clearest possible conception of the soul itself,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and such as shall be absolutely distinct from all our
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: notions of body. And how this is to be accomplished
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: is there shown. There is required besides this the assurance
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that all objects which we clearly and distinctly think are
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: true really exist in that very mode in which we
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: think them, and this could not be established previously to
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the fourth meditation. Further, it is necessary for the same
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: pers that we possess a distinct conception of corporeal nature,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: which is given partly in the second and partly in
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the fifth and sixth meditations. And finally, on these grounds
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: we are necessitated to conclude that all those objects which
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: are clearly and distinctly conceived to be diverse substances as
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: mind and body, are substances really reciprocally distinct, and this
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: inference is made in the sixth meditation. The absolute distinction
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of mind and body is besides confirmed in this second
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: meditation by showing that we cannot conceive body unless as divisible,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: while on the other hand, mind cannot be conceived unless
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: as indivisible. For we are not able to conceive the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: half of a mind, as we can of any body,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: are as small, so that the natures of these two
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: substances are to be held not only as diverse, but
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: even in some measure as contraries. I have, not, however,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: pursued this discussion further in the present treatise, as well,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: for the reason that these considerations are sufficient to show
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that the destruction of the mind does not follow from
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the corruption of the body, and thus to afford to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: mend the hope of a future life, as also because
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the premises from which it is competent for us to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: infer the immortality of the soul involve an explication of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the whole principles of physics, in order to establish in
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the first place, that generally all substances, that is, all
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: things which can exist only in consequence of having been
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: created by God, are in their own nature incorruptible, and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: can never cease to be unless God himself, by refusing
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: his concurrence to them, reduce them to nothing. And in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the second place, that body, taken generally, is a substance
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and therefore can never perish, but that the human body,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: in as far as it differs from other bodies, is
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: constituted only by a certain configuration of members, and by
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: other accidents of this sort, while the human mind is
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: not made up of accidents, but is a pure substance.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: For although all the accidents of the mind be changed,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: although for example, it think certain things, will others and
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: perceive others, the mind itself does not vary with these changes, while,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: on the contrary, the human body is no longer the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: same if a change take place in the form of
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: any of its parts, from which it follows that the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: body may, indeed, without difficulty, perish, but that the mind is,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: in its own nature immortal. In the third meditation, I
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: have unfolded at sufficient length as appears to me my
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: chief argument for the existence of God. But yet, since
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I was there desirous to avoid the use of comparisons
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: taken from material objects, that I might withdraw as far
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: as possible the minds of my readers from the senses,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: numerous obscurities perhaps remain, which, however, will I trust be
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: afterward entirely removed. In the replies to the objections, thus,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: among other things, it may be difficult to understand how
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the idea of a being absolutely perfect which is found
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: in our minds, possesses so much object of reality, that is,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: participates by representation in so many degrees of being and perfection,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: that it must be held to arise from a cause
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: absolutely perfect. This is illustrated in the replies by the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: comparison of a highly perfect machine, the idea of which
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: exists in the mind of some workmen. For as the
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: objective that is representative, perfection of this idea must have
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: some cause, namely either the science of the workman or
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of some other person from whom he has received the idea.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: In the same way, the idea of God, which is
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: found in us, demands God himself for its cause. In
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the fourth it is shown that all which we clearly
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and distinctly perceive apprehend is true, and at the same
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: time is explained wherein consists the nature of error, points
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: that require to be known as well for confirming the
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: preceding truths, as for the better understanding of those that
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: are to follow. But meanwhile, it must be observed that
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I do not at all their treat of sin, that is,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: of error committed in the pursuit of good and evil,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: but of that sort alone, which arises in the determination
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: of the true and the false. Nor do I refer
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to the matters of faith or to the conduct of life,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: but only to what regards speculative truths, and such as
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: are known by means of the natural light alone. In
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the fifth, besides the illustration of corporeal nature taken generically,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: a new demonstration is given of the existence of God,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: not free, perhaps any more than the former, from certain difficulties.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: But of these the solution will be found in the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: replies to the objections. I further show in what sense
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: it is true that the certitude of geometrical demonstrations themselves
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: is dependent on the knowledge of God. Finally, in the sixth,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the act of the understanding is distinguished from that of
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the imagination. The marks of this distinction are described. The
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: human mind is shown to be really distinct from the body,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and nevertheless to be so closely conjoined therewith as together
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to form, as it were, a unity. The whole of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the errors which arise from the senses are brought under review,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: while the means of avoiding them are pointed out, And
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: finally all the grounds are adduced from which the existence
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: of material objects may be inferred. Not, however, because I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: deemed them of great utility in establishing what they prove,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: namely that there is in reality a world, that men
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: are possessed of bodies and the like, the truth of
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: which no one of sound mind ever seriously doubted. But
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: because from a close consideration of them, it is perceived
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: that they are nither either so strong nor clear as
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the reasonings which conduct us to the knowledge of our
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: mind and of God, so that the latter are, of
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: all which come under human knowledge, the most certain and manifest,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: a conclusion which it was my single aim in these
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: meditations to establish, on which account I here omit mention
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of the various other questions which, in the course of
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the discussion I had occasion likewise to consider. End synopsis
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: of the six following meditations. This recording is in the
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: public domain. First meditation. This is the LibriVox recording. All
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. Information or to volunteer,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Meditations on First Philosophy Byronet Descartes.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: First Meditation of the Things of which we may doubt.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Several years have now elapsed since I first became aware
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: that I had accepted even from my youth many false
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: opinions were true, and that consequently what I afterward based
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: on such principles was highly doubtful. And from that time
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking, once in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: my life, to rid myself of all the opinions I
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: and abiding superstructure in the sciences. But as this enterprise
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: appeared to me to be one of great magnitude, I
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: waited until I had attained an age so mature as
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: to leave me no hope that at any stage of
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: life more advanced I should be better able to execute
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: my design. On this account, I have delayed so long
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: that I should henceforth consider I was doing wrong. Were
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I still to consume in deliberation any of the time
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that now remains for action to day, then since I
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: have opportunely freed my mind from all cares, and am
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: happily disturbed by no passions, and since I am in
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: the secure possession of leisure in a peaceable retirement, I
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: will at length apply myself earnestly and freely to the
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: general overthrow of all my former opinions. But to this
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: end it will not be necessary for me to show
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: that the whole of these are false, a point perhaps
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: which I shall never reach. But as even now my
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: reason convinces me that I ought not the less carefully
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: to withhold belief from what is not entirely certain and indubitable,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: than from what is manifestly false, it will be sufficient
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: to justify the rejection of the whole if I shall
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: find in each some ground for doubt. Nor for this
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: purpose will it be necessary even to deal with each
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: belief individually, which would be truly an endless labor. But
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: as the removal from below of the foundation necessarily involves
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the downfall of the whole edifice, I will at once
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: approach the criticism of the principles on which all my
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: former beliefs rested. All that I have up to this
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: moment accepted as possessed of the highest truth uncertainty I
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: received either from or through the senses. I observed, however,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: that these sometimes misled us, And it is the part
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of prudence not to place absolute confidence in that by
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: which we have even once been deceived. But it may
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: be said, perhaps that although the senses occasionally mislead us
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: respecting minute objects and such as are so far removed
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: from us as to be beyond the reach of close observation,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: there are yet many other of their informations or presentations
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: of the truth, which it is manifestly impossible to doubt,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: as for example, that I am in this place, seated
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: by the fire, clothed in a winter dressing gown, that
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I hold in my hands this piece of paper, with
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: other intimations of the same nature. But how could I
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: deny that I possess these hands and this body, and
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: withal escape being classed with persons in a state of insanity,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark, bilious
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: vapors as to cause them pertinaciously to assert that they
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: are monarchs when they are in the greatest poverty, or
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: clothed in gold and purple, when destitute of any covering,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: or that their head is made of clay their body
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: of glass, or that they are gourds. I should certainly
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: be not less insane than they were I to regulate
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: my procedure according to examples so extravagant though this be true,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I must nevertheless here consider that I am a man,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: and that consequently I am in the habit of sleeping
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: and representing to myself in dreams those same things, or
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: even sometimes others less probable, which the insane think are
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: presented to them in their waking moments. How often have
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: I dreamt that I was in these familiar circumstances, that
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I was dressed and occupied this place by the fire,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: when I was lying undressed in bed. At the present moment, however,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I certainly look upon this paper with eyes wide awake.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: The head which I now move is not asleep. I
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: extend this hand consciously and with express purpose, and I
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: perceive it the occurrences in sleep are not so distinct
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: as all this. But I cannot forget that at other
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: And attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: there exists no certain marks by which the state of
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: waking can ever be distinguished from sleep. That I feel
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: greatly astonished, and in amazement. I almost persuade myself that
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I am now dreaming. Let us suppose then, that we
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: are dreaming, and that all these particulars, namely the opening
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: of the eyes, the motion of the head the fourth
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: putting of the hands, are merely illusions, and even that
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: we really possess neither an entire body nor hands such
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: as we see. Nevertheless, it must be admitted at least
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: that the objects which appear to us in sleep are,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: as it were, painted, representations which could not have been
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: formed unless in the likeness of realities, and therefore that
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: those general objects at all events, namely eyes, ahead, hands,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and an entire body, are not simply imaginary, but really existent.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: For in truth, painters themselves, even when they study to
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: represent sirens and satyrs by forms the most fantastic and extraordinary,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: cannot bestow upon them natures absolutely new, but can only
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: make a certain medley of the members of different animals.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Or if they chance to imagine something so novel that
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: nothing at all similar has ever been seen before, and
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: such as is therefore purely fictitious and absolutely false, it
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: is at least certain that the colors of which this
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: is composed are real. And on the same principle, although
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: these general objects, namely a body, eyes, a head, hands,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: and the like, be imaginary, we are nevertheless absolutely necessitated
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: to admit the reality, at least of some other objects
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: still more simple and universal than these, of which, just
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: as of certain real colors, all those images of things,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: whether true and real or false and fantastic, that are
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: found in our consciousness, are formed to this class of objects,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: seem to belong corporeal nature in general and its extension.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: The figure of extended things their quantity or magnitude and
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: their number, as also the place in and the time
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: during which they exist, and of things of the same sort.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: We will not, therefore, perhaps reason illegitimately if we conclude
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: from this that physics, astronomy, medicine, and all the other
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: sciences that have for their end the consideration of composite
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: objects are indeed of a doubtful character. But that arithmetic, geometry,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: and the other sciences of the same class, which regard
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: merely the simplest and most general objects, and scarcely inquire
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: whether or not these are really existent, contain somewhat that
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: is certain and indubitable. For whether I am awake or dreaming,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: it remains true that two and three make five, and
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: that a square has but four sides. Nor does it
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: seem possible that truths so apparent can ever fall under
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: a suspicion of falsity or incertitude. Nevertheless, the belief that
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: there is a God who is all all powerful, and
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: who created me such as I am, has for a
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: long time obtained steady possession of my mind. How then,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: do I know that He has not arranged that there
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: should be neither earth, nor sky, nor any extended thing,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: nor figure, nor magnitude nor place. Providing at the same time, however,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: for the rise in me of the perceptions of all
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: these objects, and the persuasion that these do not exist
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: otherwise than as I perceive them, And further, as I
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: sometimes think that others are in error respecting matters of
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: which they believe themselves to possess a perfect knowledge, how
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: do I know that I am not also deceived each
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: time I add together two and three, or number the
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: sides of a square, or form some judgment still more simple,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: if more simple indeed can be imagined. But perhaps Deity
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: has not not been willing that I should be thus deceived,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: for he is said to be supremely good. If, however,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: it were repugnant to the goodness of Deity to have
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: created me subject to constant deception, it would seem likewise
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: to be contrary to his goodness to allow me to
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: be occasionally deceived. And yet it is clear that this
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: is permitted. Some, indeed, might perhaps be found who would
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: be disposed rather to deny the existence of a being
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: so powerful than to believe that there is nothing certain.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: But let us for the present refrain from opposing this opinion,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: and grant that all which is here said of a
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: deity is fabulous. Nevertheless, in whatever way it be supposed
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: that I reach the state in which I exist, whether
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: by fate or chance, or by an endless series of
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: antecedents and consequence, or by any other means, it is clear,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: since to be deceived and to err is a certain defect,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: that the probability of my being so imperfect as to
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: be the constant victim of deception will be increased exactly
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: in proportion as the power possessed by the cause to
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: which they assign my origin is lessened. To these reasonings,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: I have assuredly nothing to reply. But I am constrained
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: at last to avow that there is nothing of all
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: that I formerly believe to be true, of which it
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: is impossible to doubt, and that not through thoughtlessness or levity,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: but from cogent and maturely considered reasons, so that henceforth,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: if I desire to discover anything certain, I ought not
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the less carefully to refrain from assenting to those same
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: opinions than to what might be shown to be manifestly false.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: But it is not sufficient to have made these observations.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Care must be taken, likewise to keep them in remembrance,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: For those old and customary opinions perpetually recur long and
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: familiar usage, giving them the right of occupying my mind,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: even almost against my will, and subduing my belief. Nor
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: will I lose the habit of deferring to them and
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: confiding in them, so long as I shall consider them
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: to be what in truth they are, namely opinions to
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: some extent doubtful, as I have already shown, but still
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: highly probable, and such as it is much more reasonable
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: to believe than deny. It is for this reason I
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: am persuaded that I shall not be doing wrong if
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: taking an opposite judgment of deliberate design, I become my
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: own deceiver by supposing for a time that all those
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: opinions are entirely false and imaginary, until at length having
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: thus balanced my old by my new prejudices. My judgment
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: shall no longer be turned aside by perverted usage, from
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: the path that may conduct to the perception of truth.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: For I am assured that meanwhile there will arise neither
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: peril nor error from this course, and that I cannot,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: for the present yield too much to distrust, since the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: end I now seek is not action but knowledge. I
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: will suppose, then, not that Deity, who is sovereignly good
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: and the fountain of truth, but that some malignant damon,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: who is at once exceedingly potent and deceitful, has employed
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: all his artifice to deceive me. I will suppose that
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: the sky, the air, the earth, colors, figures, sounds, and
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: all external things are nothing better than the illusions of dreams,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: by means of which this being has laid snares for
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: my credulity. I will consider myself as without hands, eyes, flesh, blood,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: or any of the senses, and as falsely believing that
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I am possessed of these. I will continue resolutely fixed
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: in this belief. And if, indeed, by this means it
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: be not in my power to arrive at the knowledge
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: of truth, I shall at least do what is in
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: my power, namely, suspend my judgment, and guard with settled
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: purpose against giving my assent to what is false and
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: being imposed upon by this deceiver, whatever be his power
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: and artifice. But this undertaking is arduous, and a certain
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: indolence insensibly leads me back to my ordinary course of life.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: And just as the captive, who perchance was enjoying in
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: his dreams an imaginary liberty, when he begins to suspect
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: that it is but a vision, dreads awakening and conspires
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: with the agreeable illusions that the deception may be prolonged.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: So I, of my own accord, fall back into the
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: train of my former beliefs, and fear to arouse myself
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: from my slumber. Lest the time of laborious wakefulness that
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: would succeed this quiet rest, in place of bringing any
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: light of day, should prove inadequate to dispel the darkness
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: that will arise from the difficulties that have now been raised. End.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: First meditation. This recording is in the public domain. Second meditation.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: This is LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot Org Meditations on first Philosophy by Renee Descartes.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Second Meditation of the nature of the human mind, and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: that it is more easily known than the body. The
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: meditation of yesterday has filled my mind with so many
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: doubts that it is no longer in my power to
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: forget them. Nor do I see meanwhile any principle on
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: which they can be resolved. And just as if I
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: had fallen all of a sudden into very deep water,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: I am so greatly disconcerted as to be unable either
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: to plant my feet firmly on the bottom or sustain
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: myself by swimming on the surface. I will nevertheless make
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: an effort and try anew the same path on which
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: I had entered yesterday. That is, proceed by casting aside
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: all that admits of the slightest doubt, not less than
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: if I had discovered it to be absolutely false. And
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: I will continue always in this track until I shall
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: find something that is certain, or at least if I
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: can do nothing more, until I shall know with certainty
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: that there is nothing certain. Archimedes that he might transport
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: the entire globe from the place it occupied to another,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: demanded only a point that was firm and immovable. So
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: also I shall be entitled to entertain the highest expectations
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: if I am fortunate enough to discover only one thing
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: that is certain and indubitable. I suppose accordingly that all
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: the things which I see are false fictitious. I believe
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: that none of those objects which my fallacious memory represents
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: ever existed. I suppose that I possess no senses. I
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: believe that body, figure, extension, motion, and place are merely
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: fictions of my mind. What is there, then, that can
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: be esteemed true? Perhaps this only that there is absolutely
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: nothing certain? But how do I know that there is
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: not something different altogether from the objects I have now enumerated,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: of which it is impossible to entertain the slightest doubt?
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Is there not a God or some being by whatever
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: name I may designate him who causes these thoughts to
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: arise in my mind? But why suppose such a being?
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: For it may be I myself am capable of producing them.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Am I then at least not something? But I before
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: denied that I possessed senses or a body? I hesitate, However,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: for what follows from that? Am I so dependent on
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: the body and the senses that Without these I cannot exist.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: But I had the persuasion that there was absolutely nothing
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: in the world, that there was no sky and no earth,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: neither minds nor bodies. Was I not, therefore, at the
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: same time persuaded that I did not exist? Far from it,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: I assuredly existed since I was persuaded. But there is
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: I know not what being who is possessed at once
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: of the highest power and the deepest cunning, who is
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: constantly employing all his ingenuity in deceiving me. Doubtless, then
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: I exist, since I am deceived, and let him deceive
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: me as he may. He can never bring it about
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: that I am nothing, so long as I shall be
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: conscious that I am something, so that it must in
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: fine be maintained, all things being maturely and carefully considered
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: that this proposition I am, I exist is necessarily true
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: each time it is expressed by me or conceived in
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: my mind. But I do not yet know with sufficient
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: clearness what I am, though assured that I am, And
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: hence in the next place I must take care lest
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: perchance I inconsiderately substitute some other object in room of
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: what is properly myself, and thus wider from truth, even
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: in that knowledge cognition, which I hold to be, of
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: all others, the most certain and evident. For this reason,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I will now consider anew what I formerly believed myself
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: to be before I entered on the present train of thought,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: and of my previous opinion. I will retrench all that can,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: in the least be invalidated by the grounds of doubt
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: I have adduced, in order that there may at length
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: remain nothing but what is certain and indubitable. What then,
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: did I formerly think I was? Undoubtedly I judged that
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: I was a man? But what is a man? Shall
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: I say? A rational animal? Assuredly not, for it would
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: be necessary forthwith to inquire into what is meant by
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: animal and what by rational? And thus from a single
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: question I should insensibly glide into others, and these more
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: difficult than the first. Nor do I now possess enough
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: of leisure to warrant me in wasting my time amid
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: subtleties of this sort. I prefer here to attend to
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: the thoughts that sprung up of themselves in my mind
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: and were inspired by my own nature alone, when I
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: applied myself to the consideration of what I was in
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: the first place. Then I thought that I possessed a countenance, hands, arms,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: and all the fabric of members that appears in a corpse,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: and which I called by the name of body. It
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: further occurred to me that I was nourished, that I walked, perceived,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: and thought, and all those actions I referred to the soul.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: But what the soul itself was I either did not
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: stay to consider, or if I did, I imagined that
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: it was something extremely rare and subtle, like wind or
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: flame or ether spread through through my grosser parts. As
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: regarded the body, I did not even doubt of its nature,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: but thought I distinctly knew it, and if I had
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: wished to describe it according to the notions I then entertained,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: I should have explained myself in this manner. By body,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: I understand all that can be terminated by a certain figure,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: that can be comprised in a certain place, and so
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: fill a certain space, as therefrom to exclude every other
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: body that can be perceived, either by touch, sight, hearing, taste,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: or smell, that can be moved in different ways, not
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: indeed of itself, but by something foreign to it by
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: which it is touched and from which it receives the
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: impression for the power of self motion, as likewise that
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: of perceiving and thinking, I held as by no means
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: pertaining to the nature of body. On the contrary, I
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: was somewhat astonished to find such faculties existing in some bodies.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: But as to myself, what can I now say that
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: I am? Since I suppose there exists an extremely powerful,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: and if I may so speak, malignant being whose whole
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: endeavors are directed towards deceiving me, can I affirm that
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I possess any one of all those attributes of which
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: I have lately spoken as belonging to the nature of body.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: After attentively considering them in my own mind, I find
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: none of them that can properly be said to belong
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: to myself. To recount them were idle and tedious. Let
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: us passed, then, to the attributes of the soul. The
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: first mentioned were the powers of nutrition and walking. But
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: if it be true that I have no body, it
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: is true likewise that I am capable neither of walking
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: nor of being nourished. Perception is another attribute of the soul.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: But perception, too is impossible without the body. Besides, I
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: have frequently, during sleep, believed that I perceived objects which
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: I afterward observed I did not, in reality perceive. Thinking
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: is another attribute of the soul, and here I discover
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: what properly belongs to myself. This alone is inseparable from me.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: I am I exist? This is certain? But how often
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: as often as I think? For perhaps it would even
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: happen if I should wholly cease to think, that I should,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: at the same time altogether cease to be. I now
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: admit nothing that is not necessarily true. I am, therefore,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: precisely speaking, only a thinking thing. That is, a mind, mens,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: sea way, animus, understanding, or reason, terms whose signification was
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: be unknown to me. I am, however, a real thing
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: and really existent. But what thing? The answer was a
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: thinking thing? The question now arises, am I aught? Besides?
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: I will stimulate my imagination with a view to discover
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: whether I am not still something more than a thinking being.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Now it is plain I am not the assemblage of
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: members called the human body. I am not a thin
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: and penetrating air diffused through all these members, or wind
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: or flame or vapor or breath, or any of the
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: things I can imagine. For I supposed that all these
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: were not, and without changing the supposition, I find that
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: I still feel assured of my existence. But it is true,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: perhaps that those very things which I suppose to be
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: non existent because they are unknown to me, are not,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: in truth different from myself, whom I know. This is
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: a point I cannot determine, and do not now enter
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: into any dispute regarding it. I can only judge of
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: things that are known to me. I am conscious that
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: I exist, and I who know that I exist, inquire
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: into what I am. It is, however, perfectly certain, that
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: the knowledge of my existence, thus precisely taken, is not
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: dependent on things, the existence of which is as yet
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: unknown to me, and consequently it is not dependent on
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: any of the things I can feign in imagination. Moreover,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: the phrase itself I frame and image a fingo reminds
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: me of my error, for I should, in truth frame
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: one if I were to imagine myself to be anything,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: since to imagine is nothing more than to contemplate the
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: figure or image of a corporeal thing. But I already
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: know that I exist, and that it is possible at
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: the same time that all those images, and in general,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: all that relates to the nature of body are merely
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: dreams or chimeras. From this I discover that it is
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: not more reasonable to say, I will excite my imagination
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: that I may know more distinctly what I am, than
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: to express myself as follows, I am now awake and
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: to perceive something real. But because my perception is not
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: sufficiently clear, I will, of express purpose go to sleep,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: that my dreams may represent to me the object of
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: my perception with more truth and clearness. And therefore I
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: know that nothing of all that I can embrace in
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: imagination belongs to the knowledge which I have of myself,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: and that there is need to recall with the utmost
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: care the mind from this mode of thinking, that it
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: may be able to know its own nature with perfect distinctness.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: But what then, am I a thinking thing? It has
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: been said? But what is a thinking thing? It is
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: a thing that doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, refuses,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: that imagines also and perceives assuredly. It is not little
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: if all these properties belong to my nature? But why
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: should they not belong to it? Am I not that
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: very being who now doubts of almost everything, who for
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: all that understands and conceives certain things, who affirms one
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: alone is true and denies the others, who desires to
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: know more of them and does not wish to be deceived,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: who imagines many things, sometimes even despite his will, and
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: is likewise scipient of many as if through the medium
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: of the senses. Is there nothing of all this as
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: true as that I am, even although I should be
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: always dreaming, And although he who gave me being employed
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: all his ingenuity to deceive me, is there also any
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: one of these attributes that can be properly distinguished from
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: my thought, or that can be said to be separate
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: from myself. For it is of itself so evident that
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: it is I who doubt, I who understand an I
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: who desire that it is here unnecessary to add anything
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: by way of rendering it more clear. And I am
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: as certainly the same being who imagines. For although it
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: may be, as before supposed, that nothing I imagine is true,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: still the power of imagination does not cease really to
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: exist in me and to form part of my thought.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: In fine, I am the same being who perceives, that is,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: who apprehends certain objects as by the organs of sense,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: since in truth I see light here, a noise, and
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: feel heat. But it will be said that these presentations
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: are false, and that I am dreaming. Let it be so.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: At all events, it is certain that I seem to
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: see light here, a noise, and feel heat. This cannot
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: be false, and this is what in me is properly
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: called perceiving centiare, which is nothing else than thinking. From this,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: I begin to know what I am with somewhat greater
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: clearness and distinctness than heretofore. But nevertheless, it still seems
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: to me, and I cannot help believing that corporeal things
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: whose images are formed by thought, which fall under the
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: senses and are examined by the same, are known with
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: much greater distinctness than that. I know not what part
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: of myself which is not imaginable, although in truth it
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: may seem strange to say that I know and comprehend
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: with greater distinctness things whose existence appears to me doubtful,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: that are unknown and do not belong to me than
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: others of whose reality I am persuaded, that are known
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: to me and appertain to my proper nature, in a word,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: than myself. But I see clearly what is the state
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: of the case. My mind is apt to wander, and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: will not yet submit to be restrained within the limits
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: of truth. Let Us therefore leave the mind to itself
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: once more, and according to it every kind of liberty.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Permit it to consider the objects that appear to it
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: from without, in order that, having afterward withdrawn it from
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: these gently and opportunely, and fixed it on the consideration
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: of its being and the properties it finds in itself,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: it may then be the more easily controlled. Let us
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: now accordingly consider the objects that are commonly thought to
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: be the most easily and likewise the most distinctly known, namely,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: the bodies we touch and see, not indeed bodies in general,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: for these general notions are usually somewhat more confused. But
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: one body in particular. Take for example, this piece of wax.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: It is quite fresh, having been but recently taken from
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: the beehive. It has not yet lost the sweetness of
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: the honey it contained. It still retains somewhat of the
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: odor of the flowers from which it was gathered. Its
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: color figure size are apparent to the sight. It is hard, cold,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: easily handled, and sounds when struck upon with the finger
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: in fine. All that contributes to make a body as
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: distinctly known as possible is found in the one before us.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: But while I am speaking, let it be placed near
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: the fire. What remained of the taste exhales, the smell evaporates,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: the color changes, its figure is destroyed, its size increases,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: it becomes liquid, it grows hot. It can hardly be handled.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: And although struck upon it emits no sound. Does the
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: same wax still remain after this change? It must be
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: admitted that it does remain. No one doubts it or
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: judges otherwise. What then was it I knew with so
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: much distinctness in the piece of wax. Assuredly it could
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: be nothing of all that I observed by means of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: the senses, Since all the things that fell under taste, smell, sight, touch,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: and hearing are changed, and yet the same wax remains.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: It was perhaps what I now think, namely, that this
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: wax was neither the sweetness of honey, the pleasant odor
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: of flowers, the whiteness the figure, nor the sound, but
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: only a body that a little before appeared to me
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: conspicuous under these forms, and which is now perceived under others.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: But to speak, precisely, what is it that I imagine
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: when I think of it in this way? Let it
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: be attentively considered and retrenching all that does not belong
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: to the wax, let us see what remains there. Certainly
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: remains nothing except something extended, flexible and moveable. But what
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: is meant by flexible and moveable? Is it not that
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: I imagine that the piece of wax, being round, is
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: capable of becoming square, or of passing from a square
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: into a triangular figure. Assuredly, such is not the case,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: because I conceive that it emits of an infinity of
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: similar changes. And I am moreover unable to compass this
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: infinity by imagination. And consequently, this conception which I have
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: of the wax is not the product of the faculty
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: of imagination. But what now is this extension? Is it
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: not also unknown? For it becomes greater when the wax
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: is melted, greater when it is boiled, and greater still
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: when the heat increases. And I should not conceive clearly
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: and according truth the wax as it is if I
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: did not suppose that the piece we are considering admitted
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: even of a wider variety of extension than I ever imagined.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I must therefore admit that I cannot even comprehend by
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: imagination what the piece of wax is, and that it
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: is the mind alone which perceives it. I speak of
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: one piece in particular, for as to wax in general,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: this is still more evident. But what is the piece
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: of wax that can be perceived only by the understanding
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: or mind. It is certainly the same which I see, touch, imagine,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: and in fine it is the same which from the
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: beginning I believed it to be. But and this is
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: of moment to observe, the perception of it is neither
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: an act of sight, of touch, nor of imagination, and
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: never was either of these, though it might formerly seem so,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: But is simply an intuition in specteo of the mind,
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: which may be imperfect and confused as it formerly was,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: or very clear and distinct, as it is at present,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: according as the attention is more or less directed to
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: the elements which it contains and of which it is composed.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: But meanwhile, I feel greatly astonished when I observe the
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: weakness of my mind and its proneness to error. For
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: although without at all giving expression to what I think,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: I consider all this in my own mind. Words yet
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: occasionally impede my progress, and I am almost let into
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: error by the terms of ordinary language. We say, for example,
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: that we see the same wax when it is before us,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: and not that we judge it to be the same
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: from its retaining the same color and figure. Whence I
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: should forthwith be disposed to conclude that the wax is
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: known by the act of sight, and not by the
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: intuition of the mind alone, were it not for the
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: analogous instance of human beings passing on in the street below,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: as observed from a window. In this case, I do
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: not fail to say that I see the men themselves,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: just as I say that I see the wax. And
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: yet what do I see from the window beyond hats
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: and cloaks that might cover artificial machines whose motions might
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: be determined by springs? But I judge that there are
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: human beings from these appearances, And thus I comprehend by
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: the faculty of judgment alone, which is in the mind,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: what I believed I saw with my eyes. The man
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: who makes it his aim to rise to knowledge superior
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: to the common ought to be ashamed to seek occasions
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: of outing from the vulgar forms of speech. Instead. Therefore,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: of doing this, I shall proceed with a matter in hand,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: and inquire whether I had a clearer and more perfect
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: perception of the piece of wax when I first saw it,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: and when I thought I knew it by means of
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: the external sense itself, or at all events, by the
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: common sense, as it is called, that is, by the
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: imaginative faculty, or whether I rather apprehend it more clearly
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: at present, after having examined with greater care both what
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: it is and in what way it can be known.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: It would certainly be ridiculous to entertain any doubt on
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: this point, For what in that first perception was there distinct?
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: What did I perceive which any animal might not have perceived?
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: But when I distinguished the wax from its exterior forms,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: and when as if I had stripped it of its vestments,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: I consider it quite naked. It is certain, although some
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: error may still be found in my judgment, that I
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: cannot nevertheless thus apprehend it without possessing a human mind.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: But finally, what shall I save the mind itself, that is,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: of myself? For as yet I do not admit that
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: I am anything but mind? What then I, who seem
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: to possess so distinct an apprehension of the piece of wax,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: do I not know myself? Both with greater truth and certitude,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: and also much more distinctly and clearly. For if I
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: judge that the wax exists because I see it, it
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: assuredly follows much more evidently that I myself am or
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: exist for the same reason. For it is possible that
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: what I see may not, in truth be wax, and
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: that I do not even possess eyes with which to
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: see anything. But it cannot be that when I see or,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: which comes to the same thing when I think I see,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: I myself, who think am nothing. So Likewise, if I
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: judge that the wax exists because I touch it, it
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: will still also follow that I am. And if I
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: determine that my imagination or any other cause, whatever it be,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: persuades me of the existence of the wax, I will
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: still draw the same conclusion. And what is here remarked
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: of the piece of wax is applicable to all the
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: other things that are external to me. And further, if
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: the notion or perception of wax appeared to me more
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: precise and distinct after that not only sight and touch,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: but many other causes besides rendered it manifest to my
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: apprehension with how much greater distinctness must I now know myself?
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: Since all the reasons that contribute to the knowledge of
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: the nature of wax, or of anybody whatever, manifest still
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: better the nature of my mind. And there are, besides
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: so many other things in the mind itself that contribute
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: to the illustration of its nature, that those dependent on
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: the body to which I have here referred scarcely merit
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: to be taken into account. But in conclusion I find
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: I have insensibly reverted to the point are desired. For,
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: since it is now manifest to me that bodies themselves
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: are not properly perceived by the senses, nor by the
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone, And since
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: they are not perceived because they are seen and touched,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: but only because they are understood or rightly comprehended by thought,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: I readily discover that there is nothing more easily or
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: clearly apprehended than in my own mind. But because it
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: is difficult to rid oneself so promptly of an opinion
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: to which one has been long accustomed, it will be
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: desirable to tarry for some time at this stage, that
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: by long continued meditation, I may more deeply impress upon
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: my memory this new knowledge and second meditation. This recording
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Third meditation. This is a
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: Meditations on First Philosophy Byronet Descartes. Third meditation of God
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: that he exists. I will now close my eyes, I
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: will stop my ears. I will turn away my senses
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: from their objects. I will even efface from my consciousness
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: all the images of corporeal things, or at least, because
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: this can hardly be accomplished, I will consider them as
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: empty and false. And thus, holding converse only with myself
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: and closely examining my nature, I will endeavor to obtain
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: by degrees a more intimate and familiar knowledge of myself.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: I am a thinking, conscious thing, that is, a being
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: who doubts, affirms, denies, knows a few objects, and is
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: ignorant of many, who loves, hates, wills, refuses, who imagines
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: likewise and perceives for as I before remarked, although the
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: things which I perceive or imagine are perhaps nothing at
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: all apart from me and in themselves, I am nevertheless
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: assured that those modes of consciousness which I call perceptions
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: and imaginations, in as far only as they are modes
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: of consciousness, exist in me and in the little I
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: have said. I think I have summed up all that
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: I really know, or at least all that up to
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: this time I was aware. I knew. Now, as I
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: am endeavoring to extend my knowledge more widely, I will
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: use circumspection and consider with care whether I can still
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: discover in myself anything further which I have not yet
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: hitherto observed. I am certain that I am a thinking thing.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: But do I not, therefore likewise know what is required
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: to render me certain of a truth? In this first knowledge, doubtless,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: there is nothing that gives me assurance of its truth
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: except the clear and distinct perception of what I affirm,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: which would not indeed be sufficient to give me the
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: assurance that what I say is true, if it could
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: ever happen that anything I thus clearly and distinctly perceived
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: should prove false. And accordingly, it seems to me that
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: I may now take as a general rule that all
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: that is very clearly and distinctly apprehended or conceived is true. Nevertheless,
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: I before received and admitted many things as wholly certain
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: and manifest, which yet I afterward found to be doubtful.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: What then were those? They were the earth, the sky,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: the stars, and all the other objects which I was
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: in the habit of perceiving by the senses. But what
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: was it that I clearly and distinctly perceived in them?
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: Nothing more than that the ideas and the thoughts of
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: those objects were presented to my mind. And even now
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: I do not deny that these ideas are found in
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: my mind. But there was yet another thing which I affirmed,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: and which, from having been accustomed to believe it, I
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: thought I clearly perceived, although in truth I did not
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: perceive it at all. I mean the existence of objects
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: external to me, from which those ideas proceeded, and to
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: which they had a perfect resemblance. And it was here
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: I was mistaken, or, if I judged correctly, this assuredly
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: was not to be traced to any knowledge I possessed.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: But when I considered any matter in arithmetic and geometry,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: that was very simple and easy, as for example, that
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: two and three added together make five, and things of
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: this sort, did I not view them with at least
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: sufficient clearness to warrant me in affirming their truth. Indeed,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: if I afterward judged that we ought to doubt of
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: these things, it was for no other reason than because
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: it occurred to me that a God might perhaps have
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: given me such a nature as that I should be deceived,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: even respecting the matters that appeared to me the most
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: evidently true. But as often as this preconceived opinion of
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: the sovereign power of a God presents itself to my mind,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: I am constrained to admit that it is easy for
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: him if he wishes it to cause me to err,
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: even in matters where I think I possess the highest evidence.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: And on the other hand, as often as I direct
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: my attention to things which I think I apprehend with
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: great clearness, I am so persuaded of their truth that
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: I naturally break out into expressions such as these deceive me.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: Who may no one will yet ever be able to
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: bring it about that I am not, so long as
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: I shall be conscious that I am, or at any
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: future time cause it to be true that I have
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: never been, it being now true that I am, or
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: make two and three more or less than five. In
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: supposing which and other like absurdities, I discover a manifest contradiction.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: And in truth, as I have no ground for believing
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: that deity is deceitful, and as indeed I have not
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: even considered the reasons by which the existence of a
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: deity of any kind is established, the ground of doubt
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: that rests only on this supposition is very slight, and
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: so to speak, metaphysical. But that I may be able
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: wholly to remove it, I must inquire whether there is
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: a God, and soon as an opportunity of doing so
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: shall present itself. And if I find that there is
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: a God, I must examine likewise whether he can be
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: a deceiver. For without the knowledge of these two truths,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: I do not see that I can ever be certain
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: of anything, and that I may be enabled to examine
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: this without interrupting the order of meditation I have proposed
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: to myself, which is to pass by degrees from the
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: notions that I shall find first in my mind to
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: those I shall afterward discover in it. It is necessary
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: at this stage to divide all my thoughts into certain classes,
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: and to consider in which of these classes truth and
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: error are, strictly speaking, to be found. Of my thoughts
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: some are as it were, images of things, and to
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: these alone properly belongs the name idea, as when I
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: think or represent my mind a man, a chimera, the sky,
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: an angel, god. Others Again have certain other forms, as
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: when I will fear, affirm or deny. I always indeed
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: apprehend something as the object of my thought. But I
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: also embrace in thoughts something more than the representation of
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: the object. And of this class of thoughts some are
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: called volitions or affections, and others judgments. Now with respect
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: to ideas, if these are considered only in themselves, and
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: are not referred to any object beyond them, they cannot
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: properly speaking be false. For whether I imagine a goat
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: or chimera, it is not the less true that I
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: imagine the one than the other. Nor need we fear
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: that falsity may exist in the will or affections. For
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: although I may desire objects that are wrong, and even
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: that never exist, it it is still true that I
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: desire them. There thus only remain our judgments, in which
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: we must take diligent heed that we be not deceived.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: But the chief and most ordinary error that arises in
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: them consists in judging that the ideas which are in
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: us are like or conformed to the things that are
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: external to us. For assuredly, if we but considered the
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: ideas themselves as certain modes of our thought, of our consciousness,
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: without referring them to anything beyond, they would hardly afford
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: any occasion of error. But among these ideas, some appear
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: to me to be innate, others adventitious, and others to
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: be made by myself being factitious. For as I have
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: the power of conceiving what is called a thing, or
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: a truth or a thought, it seems to me that
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: I hold this power from no other source than my
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: own nature. But if I now hear a noise, if
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: I see the sun, or if I feel heat, I
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: have all along judged that these sensations proceeded from certain
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: objects existing out of myself. And in fine it appears
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: to me that sirens, hippogriffs, and the like are inventions
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: of my own mind. But I may even perhaps come
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: to be of opinion that all my ideas are of
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: the class which I call adventitious, or that they all
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: are innate, or that they all are factitious, For I
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: have not yet clearly discovered their true origin. What I
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: have here principally to do is to consider, with reference
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: to those that appear to come from certain objects without me,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: what grounds there are for thinking them like these objects.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: The first of these grounds is that it seems to
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: me I am so taught by nature, and the second
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: that I am conscious that those ideas are not dependent
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: on my will and therefore not on myself, for they
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: are frequently presented to me against my will. As at present,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: whether I will or not, I feel heat. And I
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: am thus persuaded that the sensation or idea of heat
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: is produced in me by something different from myself, namely
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: by the heat of the fire by which I sit.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: And it is very reasonable to suppose that this object
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: impresses me with its own likeness rather than any other thing.
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: But I must consider whether these reasons are sufficiently strong
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: and convincing. When I speak of being taught by nature
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: in this matter, I understand by the word nature only
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: a certain spontaneous impetus that impels me to believe in
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: a resemblance between ideas and their objects, and not a
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: natural light that affords a knowledge of its truth. But
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: these two things are widely different. For what the natural
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: light shows to be true can be in no degree doubtful,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: as for example, that I am because I doubt, and
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: other truths of the like kind, inasmuch as I possess
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: no other faculty whereby to distinguish truth from error, which
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: can teach me the falsity of what the natural light
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: declares to be true, and which is equally trustworthy. But
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: with respect to seemingly natural impulses, I have observed, when
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: the question related to the choice of right or wrong
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: in action, that they frequently led me to take the
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: worse part. Nor do I see that I have any
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: better ground for following them and what relates to truth
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: and error, than with respect to the other reason, which
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: is that, because these ideas do not depend on my will,
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: they must arise from objects existing without me. I do
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: not find it more commencing than the former. For just
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: as those natural impulses of which I have lately spoken
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: are found in me, notwithstanding that they are not always
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: in harmony with my will, so likewise it may be
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: that I possess some power not sufficiently known to myself,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: capable of producing ideas without the aid of external objects.
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: And indeed, it has always hitherto appeared to me that
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: they are formed during sleep by some power of this nature,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: without the aid of aught external And in fine, although
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: I should grant that they proceeded from those objects, it
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: is not a necessary consequence that they must be like them.
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, I have observed in a number of
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: instances that there was a great difference between the object
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: and its idea. Thus, for example, I find in my
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: mind two wholly diverse ideas of the Sun. The one
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: by which it appears to me extremely small, draws its
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: origin from the senses, and should be placed in the
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: class of adventitious ideas. The other, by which it seems
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: to be many times larger than the whole earth, is
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: taken up on astronomical grounds, that is elicited from certain
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: notions born with me, or is framed by myself in
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: some other manner. These two ideas cannot certainly both resemble
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: the same Sun, and reason teaches me that the one
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: which seems to have immediately emanated from it is the
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: most unlike. And these things sufficiently prove that hitherto it
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: has not been from a certain and deliberate judgment, but
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: only from a sort of blind impulse, that I believed
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: existence of certain things different from myself, by the organs
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: of sense, or by whatever other means it might be,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: conveyed their ideas or images into my mind and impressed
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: it with their likenesses. But there is still another way
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: of inquiring, whether of the objects whose ideas are in
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: my mind, there are any that exists out of me.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: If ideas are taken in so far only as they
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: are certain modes of consciousness, I do not remark any
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: difference or inequality among them, and all seem in the
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: same manner to proceed from myself. But considering them as
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: images of which one represents one thing and another a different,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: it is evident that a great diversity obtains among them.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: For without doubt, those that represent substances are something more
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: and contain in themselves, so to speak, more object of reality,
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: that is, participate by representation in higher degrees of being
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: or perfection than those that represent only modes or accidents.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: And again, the idea by which I conceive a God, sovereign, eternal, infinite, immutable,
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: all knowing, all powerful, and the creator of all things
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: that are out of himself. This, I say, has certainly
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: in it more objective reality than those ideas by which
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: finite substances are represented. Now it is manifest by the
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: natural light that there must at least be as much
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: reality in the efficient and total cause as in its effect.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: For whence can the effect draw its reality if not
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: from its cause? And how could the cause communicate to
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: it this reality unless it possessed it in itself. And
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: hence it follows not only that what is cannot be
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: produced by what is not, but likewise that the more perfect,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: in other words, that which contains in itself more reality,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: cannot be the effect of the less perfect. And this
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: is not only evidently true of those effects whose reality
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: is actual or formal, but likewise of ideas whose reality
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: is only considered as objective. Thus, for example, the stone
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: that is not yet in existence not only cannot now
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: commence to be unless it be produced by that which
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: possesses in itself, formally or eminently all that enters into
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: its composition, in other words, by that which contains in
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: itself the same properties that are in the stone, or
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: others superior to them. And heat can only be produced
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: in a subject that was before devoid of it by
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: a cause that is of an order, degree or kind
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: at least as perfect as heat, and so of the others.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: But further, even the idea of the heat or of
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: the stone cannot exist in me unless it be put
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: there by a cause that contains at least as much
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: reality as I conceive existent in the heat or in
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: the stone. For although that cause may not transmit into
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: my idea anything of its actual or formal reality, we
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: ought not on this account to imagine that it is
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: less real. But we ought to consider that, as every
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: idea is a work of the mind, its nature is
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: such as of itself to demand no other formal reality
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: than that which it borrows from our consciousness, of which
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: it is but a mode, that is a manner or
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: way of thinking. But in order that an idea may
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: contain this objective reality, rather than that, it must doubtless
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: derive it from some cause in which is found at
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: least as much formal reality as the idea contains of
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: objective For if we suppose that there is found in
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: an idea anything which was not in its cause, it
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: must of course, derive this from nothing. But however, imperfect
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: may be the mode of existence by which a thing
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: is objectively or by representation in the understanding by its idea.
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: We certainly cannot, for all that allege that this mode
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: of existence is nothing, nor consequently that the idea owes
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: its origin to nothing. Nor must it be imagined that,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: since the reality which considered in these ideas is only objective,
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: the same reality need not be formally or actually in
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: the causes of these ideas, but only objectively. For just
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: as the mode of existing objectively belongs to ideas by
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: their peculiar nature, so likewise the mode of existing formally
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: appertains to the causes of these ideas, at least to
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: the first and principle, by their peculiar nature. And although
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: an idea may give rise to another idea, this regress
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: cannot nevertheless be infinite. We must, in the end reach
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: a first idea, the cause of which is, as it were,
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: the archetype in which all the reality or perfection that
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: is found objectively or by representation in these ideas is
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: contained formally and an act. I am thus clearly taught
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: by the natural light that ideas exist in me as
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: pictures or images which may, in truth read fall short
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: of the perfection of the objects from which they are taken,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: but can never contain anything greater or more perfect. And
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: in proportion to the time and care with which I
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: examine all those matters, the conviction of their truth brightens
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: and becomes distinct. But to sum up, what conclusion shall
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: I draw from it all? It is this, if the
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: objective reality or perfection of any one of my ideas
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: be such as clearly to convince me that this same
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: reality exists in me, neither formally nor eminently, and if,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: as follows from this, I myself cannot be the cause
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: of it, it is a necessary consequence that I am
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: not alone in the world, but that there is besides
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: myself some other being who exists as the cause of
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: that idea. While on the contrary, if no such idea
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: be found in my mind, I shall have no sufficient
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: ground of assurance of the existence of any other being
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: besides myself, For after a most careful search, I have
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: up to this moment been unable to discover any other
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: ground but among these my ideas, besides that which represents myself,
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: respecting which there can be here no difficulty. There is
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: one that represents a God, others that represent corporeal and
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: inanimate things, others angels, others animals, and finally there are
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: some that represent men like myself. But with respect to
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: the ideas that represent other men, or animals or angels,
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: I can easily suppose that they were formed by the
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: mingling and composition of the other ideas which I have
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: of myself, of corporeal things and of God. Although they
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: were apart from myself neither men, animals, nor angels, And
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: with regard to the ideas of corporeal objects, I never
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: discovered in them anything so great or excellent which I
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: myself did not appear capable of originating. For by considering
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: these ideas closely and scrutinizing them individually, in the same
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: way that I yesterday examined the idea of wax, I
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: find that there is but little in them that is
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: clearly and distinctly perceived as belonging to the class of things.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: That are clearly apprehended I recognize the following, namely, magnitude
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: or extension in length, breadth and depth figure which results
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: from the termination of extension situation which bodies of diverse
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: figures preserve with reference to each other and motion, or
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: the change of situation, to which may be added substance, duration,
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: and number. But with regard to light, colors, sounds, odors, tastes, heat, cold,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: and the other tactile qualities, they are thought with so
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: much obscurity and confusion that I cannot determine even whether
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: they are true or false. In other words, whether or
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: not the ideas I have of these qualities are in
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: truth the ideas of real objects. For although I before
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: remarked that it is only in judgments that formal falsity
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: or falsity properly so called, can be met with, there
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: may nevertheless be found in ideas a certain material falsity,
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: which arises when they represent what is nothing as if
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: it were something. Thus, for example, the ideas I have
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: of cold and heat are so far from being clear
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: and distinct that I am unable from them to discover
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: whether cold is only the privation of heat, or heat
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: the privation of cold, or whether they are or are
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: not real qualities. And since ideas being as it were, images,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: there can be none that does not seem to us
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: to represent some object. The idea which represents cold as
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: something real and positive, will not improperly be called false,
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: if it be correct to say that cold is nothing
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: but a privation of heat, and so in other cases
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: to ideas of this kind, indeed, it is not necessary
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: that I should assign any author besides myself, For if
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: they are false, that is, represent objects that are unreal,
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: the natural light teaches me that they proceed from nothing,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: in other words, that they are in me only because
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: something is wanting to the perfection of my nature. But
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: if these ideas are true, yet, because they exhibit to
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: me so little reality that I cannot even distinguish the
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: object represented from non being, I do not see why
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: I should not be the author of them. With reference
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: to those ideas of corporeal things that are clear and distinct,
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: there are some which, as appears to me, might have
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: been taken from the idea I have of myself, as
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: those of substance, duration, number, and the like. For when
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: I think that a stone is a substance or a
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: thing capable of existing of itself, and that I am
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: likewise a substance, although I conceive that I am a
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: thinking and non extended thing, and that the stone, on
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: the contrary, is extended and unconscious, there being thus the
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: greatest diversity between the two concepts. Yet these two ideas
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: seem to have this in common, that they both represent
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: substances in the same way. When I think of myself
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: as now existing and recollect besides that I existed some
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: time ago, and when I am conscious of various thoughts
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: whose number I know, I then acquire the ideas of
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: duration and number, which I can afterward transfer to as
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: many objects as I please. With respect to the other
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: qualities that go to make up the ideas of corporeal objects,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: namely extension, figure, situation, and motion, it is true that
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: they are not formally in me, since I am merely
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: a thinking being. But because they are only certain modes
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: of substance, and because I myself am a substance, it
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: seems possible that they may be contained in me eminently.
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: There only remains, therefore, the idea of God, in which
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: I might consider whether there is anything that cannot be
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: supposed to originate with myself. By the name God, I
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: understand a substance, infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, all knowing, all powerful,
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: and by which I, myself and every other thing that exists.
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: If any such there be were created. But these properties
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: are so great and excellent that the more attentively I
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: consider them, the less I feel persuaded. That the idea
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: I have of them owes its origin to myself alone.
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: And thus it is absolutely necessary to conclude from all
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: that I have before said that God exists. For though
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: the idea of substance be in my mind, owing to
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: this that I myself am a substance, I should not, however,
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: have the idea of an infinite substance being I am
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: a finite being, unless it were given me by some
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: substance in reality infinite. And I must not imagine that
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: I do not apprehend the infinite by a true idea,
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: but only by negation of the finite, in the same
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: way that I comprehend repose and darkness by the negation
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: of motion and light. Since, on the contrary, I clearly
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: perceive that there is more reality in the infinite substance
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: than in the finite, and therefore that in some way
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: I possess the perception or notion of the infinite before
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: that of the finite, that is, the perception of God
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: before that of myself. For how could I know that
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: I doubt desire, or that something is wanting to me,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: and that I am not wholly perfect. If I possessed
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: no idea of a being more perfect than myself, by
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: comparison of which I knew the deficiencies of my nature,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: and it cannot be said that this idea of God
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: is perhaps materially false, and consequently that it may have
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: arisen from nothing, in other words, that it may exist
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: in me from my imperfections, as I before said of
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: the ideas of heat and cold and the like. For
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: on the contrary, as this idea is very clear and distinct,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: and contains in itself more object of reality than any other,
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: there can be no one of itself more true or
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: less open to the suspicion of falsity. The idea I say,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: of a being supremely perfect and infinite is in the
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: highest degree true. For although perhaps we may imagine that
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: such a being does not exist, we cannot nevertheless suppose
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: that his idea represents no real As I have already
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: said of the idea of cold, it is likewise clear
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: and distinct in the highest degree. Since whatever the mind
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: clearly and distinctly conceives as real or true, and as
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: implying any perfection is contained entire in this idea. And
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: this is true. Nevertheless, although I do not comprehend the infinite,
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: and although there may be in God an infinity of
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: things that I cannot comprehend nor perhaps even compass by
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: thought in any way, for it is of the nature
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: of the infinite that it should not be comprehended by
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: the finite. And it is enough that I rightly understand
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: this and judge that all which I clearly perceive and
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: in which I know, there is some perfection, and perhaps
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: also an infinity of properties of which I am ignorant,
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: are formally or emine in God, in order that the
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: idea I have of Him may become the most true, clear,
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: and distinct of all the ideas in my mind. But
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: perhaps I am something more than I suppose myself to be.
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: And it may be that all those perfections which I
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: attribute to God in some way exists potentially in me,
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: although they do not yet show themselves and are not
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: reduced to act. Indeed, I am already conscious that my
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: knowledge is being increased and perfected by degrees, and I
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: see nothing to prevent it from thus gradually increasing to infinity,
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: nor any reason why after such increase and perfection, I
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: should not be able thereby to acquire all the other
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: perfections of the divine nature. Nor in fine why the
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: power I possess of acquiring those perfections, if it really
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: now exists in me, should not be sufficient to produce
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: the ideas of them. Yet on looking more closely into
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: the matter, I discover that this cannot be. For in
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: the first place, although it were true that my knowledge
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: daily acquired new degrees of perfection, and although there were
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: potentially in my nature much that was not as yet
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: actually in it, still all these excellences make not the
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: slightest approach to the idea I have of the deity
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: in whom there is no perfection merely potentially, but all
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: actually existent. For it is even an unmistakable token of
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: imperfection in my knowledge, that it is augmented by degrees. Further,
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: although my knowledge increase more and more, nevertheless, I am
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: not there for induced to think that it will ever
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: be actually infinite, since it can never reach that point
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: beyond which it shall be incapable of further increase. But
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: I conceive God as actually infinite, so that nothing can
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: be added to his perfection, and in fine I readily
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: perceive that the objective being of an idea cannot be
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: produced by a being that is merely potentially existent, which
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: properly speaking, is nothing, but only by a being existing
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: formally or actually. And truly I see nothing in all
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: that I have now said, which it is not easy
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: for anyone who shall carefully consider it to discern by
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: the natural light. But when I allow my attention in
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: some degree to relax, the vision of my mind being obscured,
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: and as it were, blinded by the images of sensible objects,
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: I do not readily remember the reason why the idea
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: of a being more perfect than myself must of necessity
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: have proceeded from a being in reality more perfect. On
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: this account, I am here desirous to inquire further whether I,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: who possessed this idea of God, could exist, supposing there
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: were no God. And I ask from whom could I,
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: in that case derive my existence? Perhaps from myself, or
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: from my parents, or from some other causes less perfect
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: than God. For anything more perfect or even equal to
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: God cannot be thought or imagined. But if I were
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: independent of every other existence, and were myself the author
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: of my being, I should doubt of nothing, I should
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: desire nothing, And in fine, no perfection would be a
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: wanting to me, for I should have bestowed upon myself
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: every perfection of which I possess the idea, and I
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: should thus be God. And it must not be imagined
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: that what is now wanting to me is perhaps of
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: more difficult acquisition than that of which I am already possessed.
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: For on the contrary, it is quite manifest that it
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: was a matter of much higher difficulty that I, a
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: thinking being, should arise from nothing than it would be
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: for me to acquire the knowledge of many things of
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: which I am ignorant, and which are merely the accidents
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: of a thinking substance. And certainly, if I possessed of
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: myself the greater perfection of which I have now spoken.
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: In other words, if I were the author of my
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: own existence, I would not at least have denied to
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: myself things that may be more easily obtained as that
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: infinite variety of knowledge of which I am at present destitute.
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: I could not indeed have denied to myself any property
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: which I perceive as contained in the idea of God,
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: because there is none of these that seems to me
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: more difficult to make or acquire, And if there were
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: any that should happen to be more difficult to acquire,
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: they would certainly appear so to me, supposing that I
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: myself were the source of the other things I possess,
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: because I should discover in them a limit to my power.
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: And though I were to suppose that I always was
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: as I now am, I should not on this ground
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: escape the force of these reasonings, since it would not follow,
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: even on this supposition that no author of my existence
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: needed to be sought after, for the whole time of
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: my life may be divided into an infinity of parts,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: each of which is in no way dependent on any other.
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: And accordingly, because I was in existence a short time ago,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: it does not follow that I must now exist, unless
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: in this moment some cause create me a new as
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: it were, that is, conserve me. In truth, it is
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: perfectly clear and evident to all who will attentively consider
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: the nature of duration, that the conservation of a substance
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: in each moment of its duration requires the same power
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: and act that would be necessary to create it supposing
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: it were not yet in existence, so that it is
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: manifestly a dictate of the natural light, that conservation and
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: creation differ merely in respect of our mode of thinking,
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: and not in reality. All that is here required, therefore,
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: is that I interrogate myself to discover whether I possess
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: any power by means of which I can bring it about,
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: that I, who now am, shall exist a moment afterward,
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: For since I am merely a thinking thing, or since
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: at least the precisely question in the meantime is only
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: of that part of myself. If such a power resided
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: in me, I should without doubt be conscious of it.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: But I am conscious of no such power, and thereby
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: I manifestly know that I am dependent upon some being
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: different from myself. But perhaps the being upon whom I
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: am dependent is not God, and I have been produced
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: either by my parents or by some causes less perfect
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: than Deity. This cannot be, for as I before said,
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: it is perfectly evident that there must at least be
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: as much reality in the cause as in the effect.
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: And accordingly, since I am a thinking thing and possess
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: in myself an idea of God, whatever, in the end
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: be the cause of my existence, it must of necessity
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: be admitted that it is likewise a thinking being, and
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: that it possesses in itself the idea and all the
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: perfections I attribute to Deity. Then it may again be
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: inquired whether this cause owes its origin and existence to
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: itself or to some other cause. For if it be
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: self existent, it follows from what I have before laid
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: down that this cause is God. For since it possesses
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: the perfection of self existence, it must likewise, without doubt,
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: have the power of actually possessing every perfection of which
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: it has the idea. In other words, all the perfections
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: I conceive to belong to God. But if it owe
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: its existence to another cause than itself, we demand again,
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: for a similar reason, whether this second cause exists of
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: itself or through some other, until from stage to stage
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: we at length arrive at an ultimate cause, which will
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: be God. And it is quite manifest that in this
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: matter there can be no infinite regress of causes, seeing
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: that the question raised respects not so much the cause
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: which once produced me as that by which I am
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: at this present moment conserved. Nor can it be supposed
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: that several causes concurred in my production, and that from
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: one I received the idea of one of the perfections
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: I attribute to Deity, and from another the idea of
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: some other, and thus that all those perfections are indeed
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: found somewhere in the universe, but do not all exist
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: together in a single being who is God. For on
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: the contrary, the unity, the simplicity or inseparability of all
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: the properties of Deity is one of the chief perfections
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: I conceive him to possess. And the idea of this
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: unity of all the perfections of Deity could certainly not
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: be put into my mind by any cause from which
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: I did not likewise receive the ideas of all the
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: other perfections, for no power could enable me to embrace
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: them in an inseparable unity, without at the same time
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: giving me the knowledge of what they were and of
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: their existence in a particular mode. Finally, with regard to
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: my parents, from whom it appears I sprung, although all
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: that I believed respecting them be true, it does not
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: nevertheless follow that I am conserved by them, or even
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: that I was produced by them. In so far as
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: I am a thinking being. All that at the most
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: they contributed to my origin was the giving of certain
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: dispositions or modifications to the matter in which I have
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: hitherto judged that I or my mind, which is what
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: alone I now consider to be myself, is enclosed, and
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: thus there can here be no difficulty with respect to them.
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: And it is absolutely necessary to conclude from this alone
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: that I am and possess the idea of a being
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: absolutely perfect, that is, of God, that his existence is
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: most clearly demonstrated. There remains only the inquiry as to
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: the way in which I received this idea from God,
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: for I have not drawn it from the senses, nor
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: is it even presented to me unexpectedly, as is usual
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: with the ideas of sensible objects, when these are presented
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: or appear to be presented to the external organs of
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: the senses. It is not even a pure production or
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: fiction of my mind, for it is not in my
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: power to take from or add to it. And consequently,
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: there but remains the alternative that it is innate in
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: the same way as is the idea of myself. And
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: in truth it is not to be wondered at that God,
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: at my creation, implanted this idea in me, that it
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: might serve, as it were, for the mark of the
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: workman impressed on his work. And it is not also
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: necessary that the mark should be something different from the
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: work itself. But considering only that God is my creator,
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: it is highly probable that He in some way fashioned
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: me after his own image and likeness, and that I
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: perceive this likeness in which is contained the idea of God,
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: by the same faculty by which I apprehend myself. In
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: other words, when I make myself the object of reflection,
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: I not only find that I am an incomplete, imperfect
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: and dependent being, and one who unceasingly aspires after something
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: better and greater than he is, but at the same
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: time I am assured likewise that He upon whom I
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: am dependent possesses in himself all the goods after which
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: I aspire, and the ideas of which I find in
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: my mind, and that not merely indefinitely and potentially, but
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: infinitely and actually, and that he is thus God. And
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: the whole force of the argument of which I have
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: here availed myself to establish the existence of God consists
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: in this that I perceive I could not possibly be
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: of such a nature as I am, and yet have
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: in my mind the idea of a God if God
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: did not in reality exist. This same God, I say,
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: whose idea is in my mind. That is a being
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: who possesses all those lofty perfections of which the mind
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: may have some slight conception, without however, being able fully
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: to comprehend them, and who is wholly superior to all
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: defect and has nothing that marks imperfection. Whence it is
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: sufficiently manifest that he cannot be a deceiver, since it
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: is a dictate of the natural light, that all fraud
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: and deception spring from some defect. But before I examine
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: this with more attention, and pass on to the consideration
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: of other truths that may be evolved out of it,
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: I think it proper to remain here for some time
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: in the contemplation of God himself, that I may ponder
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: at leisure his marvelous attributes, and behold, admire, and adore
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: the beauty of this light, so unspeakably great, as far
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: at least as the strength of my mind, which is
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: to some degree dazzled by the sight, will permit. For
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: just as we learn by faith that the supreme felicity
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: of another life consists in the contemplation of the Divine
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: Majesty alone, so even now we learn from experience that
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: alike meditation, though incomparably less perfect is the source of
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: the highest satisfaction of which we are susceptible in this life. End.
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: Third meditation. This recording is in the public domain. Fourth meditation.
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Meditations on first Philosophy by Rene Descartes.
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: Fourth meditation of Truth and Error. I have been habituated
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: these bygone days to detach my mind from the senses,
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: and I have accurately observed that there is exceedingly little
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: which is known with certainty respecting corporeal objects, that we
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: know much more of the human mind, and still more
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: of God himself. I am thus able now without difficulty
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: to abstract my mind from the contemplation of sensible or
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: imaginable objects, and apply it to those which, as disengaged
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: from all matter, are purely intelligible. And certainly, the idea
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: I have of the human mind, in so far as
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: it is a thinking thing and not extended in length, breadth,
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: and depth, and participating in none of the properties of body,
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: is incomparably more distinct than the idea of any corporeal omuray.
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: And when I consider that, I doubt, in other words,
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: that I am an incomplete and dependent being. The idea
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: of a complete and independent being, that is to say,
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: of God, occurs to my mind with so much clearness
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: and distinctness. And from the fact alone that this idea
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: is found in me, or that I, who possess it exist,
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: the conclusions that God exists, and that my own existence,
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: each moment of its continuance, is absolutely dependent upon Him,
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: are so manifest as to lead me to believe it
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: impossible that the human mind can know anything with more
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: clearness and certitude. And now I seem to discover a
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: path that will conduct us from the contemplation of the
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: True God, in whom are contained all the treasures of
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: science and wisdom, to the knowledge of the other things
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: in the universe. For in the first place, I discover
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: that it is impossible for him ever to deceive me.
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: For in all fraud and deceit, there is a certain imperfection.
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: And although it may seem that the ability to deceive
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: is a mark of subtlety or power, yet the will
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: testifies without doubt of malice and weakness. And such accordingly
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: cannot be found in God. In the next place, I
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: am conscious that I possess a certain faculty of judging
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: or discerning truth from error, which I doubtless received from God,
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: along with whatever else is mine. And since it is
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: impossible that He should will to deceive me, it is
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: likewise certain that He has not given me a faculty
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: that will ever lead me into error, provided I use
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: it aright, and there would remain no doubt on this head.
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: Did it not seem to follow from this that I
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: can never therefore be deceived? For if all I possess
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: be from God, and if He planted in me no faculty,
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: that is to sayul, it seems to follow that I
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: can never fall into error. Accordingly, it is true that
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: when I think only of God, and when I look
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: upon myself as coming from God and turn wholly to Him,
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: I discover in myself no cause of error or falsity.
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: But immediately thereafter, recurring to myself, experience assures me that
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: I am nevertheless subject to innumerable errors. When I come
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: to inquire into the cause of these, I observe that
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: there is not only present to my consciousness a real
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: and positive idea of God or of a being supremely perfect,
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: but also, so to speak, a certain negative idea of nothing,
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: in other words, of that which is at an infinite
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: distance from every sort of perfection. And that I am,
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: as it were, a mean between God and nothing, or
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: placed in such a way between absolute existence and non existence,
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: that there is, in truth nothing in me to lead
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: me into error, in so far as an absolute being
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: is my creator. But that, on the other hand, as
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: I thus likewise participate in some degree of nothing or
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: of non being, in other words, as I am not
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: myself the supreme being, and as I am wanting in
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: many perfections, it is not surprising I should fall into error.
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: And I hence discern that error, so far as error
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: is not something real which depends for its existence on God,
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: but is simply defect, and therefore that in order to
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: fall into it, it is not necessary God should have
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: given me a faculty expressly for this end. But that
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: my being deceived arises from the circumstance that the power
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: which God has given me of discerning truth from error
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: is not infinite. Nevertheless, this is not yet quite satisfactory,
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: for error is not a pure negation. In other words,
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: it is not the simple deficiency or want of some
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: knowledge which is not due, but the privation or want
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: of some knowledge which it would seem I ought to possess.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: But on considering the nature of God, it seems impossible
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: that He should have planted in his creature any faculty
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: not perfect in its kind, that is wanting in some
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: perfection due to it. For if it be true that
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: in proportion to the skill of the maker, the perfection
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: of his work is greater, what thing can have been
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: produced by the supreme creator of the universe that is
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: not absolutely perfect in all its parts? And assuredly, there
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: is no doubt that God could have created me such
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: that I should never be deceived. It is certain likewise
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: that He always wills what is best? Is it better
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: then that I should be capable of being deceived than
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: that I should not? Considering this more attentively, the first
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: thing that occurs to me is the reflection that I
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: must not be surprised if I am not always capable
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: of comprehending the reasons why God acts as he does,
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: nor must I doubt of his existence, because I find
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: perhaps that there are several other things besides the present
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: respecting which I understand neither why nor how they were
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: created by Him. For knowing already that my nature is
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: extremely weak and limited, and that the nature of God,
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, is immense, incomprehensible and infinite, I
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: have no longer any difficulty in discerning that there is
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: an infinity of things in His power whose causes transcend
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: the grasp of my mind. And this consideration alone is
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: sufficient to convince me that the whole class of final
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: causes is of no avail in physical or natural things.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: For it appears to me that I cannot, without exposing
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: myself to the charge of temerity, seek to discover the
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: impenetrable ends of Deity. It further occurs to me that
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: we must not consider only one creature apart from the
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: others if we wish to determine the perfection of the
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: works of Deity, but generally all his creatures together. For
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: the same object that might, perhaps with some show of reason,
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: be deemed highly imperfect if it were alone in the world,
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: may for all that be the most perfect possible, considered
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: as forming part of the whole universe. And although as
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: it was my purpose to doubt of everything, I only
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: as yet know with certainty my own existence and that
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: of God. Nevertheless, after having remarked the infinite power of Deity,
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: I cannot deny that He may have produced many other objects,
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: or at least that he is able to produce them,
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: so that I may occupy a place in the relation
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 1: of a part to the great whole of his creatures. Whereupon,
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: regarding myself more closely, and considering what my errors are,
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: which alone testify to the existence of imperfection in me,
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: I observe that these depend on the concurrence of two causes,
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: namely the faculty of cognition which I possess, and that
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: of election, or the power of free choice. In other words,
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: the understanding and the will. For by the understanding alone,
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: I neither affirm nor deny anything, but merely apprehend the
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: ideas regarding which I may form a judgment. Nor is
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: any error properly so called found in it thus accurately taken.
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: And although there are perhaps innumerable objects in the world
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: of which I have no idea in my understanding, it cannot,
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: on that account be said that I am deprived of
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: those ideas as of something that is due to my nature,
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: but simply that I do not possess them, because in truth,
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 1: there is no ground to prove that the Deity ought
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: to have endowed me with a larger faculty of cognition
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: than he has actually bestowed upon me. And however skillful
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: a workman I suppose him to be, I have no
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: reason on that account to think that it was obligatory
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: on Him to give to each of his works all
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: the perfections he is able to bestow upon some. Nor moreover,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: can I complain that God has not given me freedom
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: of choice or a will sufficiently ample and perfect, since
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: in truth I am conscious of will so ample and
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: extended as to be superior to all limits. And what
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: appears to me here to be highly remarkable is that
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: of all the other properties I possess, there is none
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: so great and perfect as that I do not clearly
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: discern it could be still greater and more perfect. For
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: to take an example, if I consider the faculty of
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: understanding which I possess, I find that it is of
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: very small extent and greatly limited. And at the same
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: time I form the idea of another faculty of the
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: same nature, much more ample and even infinite. And seeing
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: that I can frame the idea of it, I discover
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: from this circumstance alone that it pertains to the nature
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: of God. In the same way, if I examine the
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: faculty of memory, or imagination, or any other faculty I possess,
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: I find none that is not small and circumscribed, and
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: in God immense and infinite. It is the faculty of
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: will only, or freedom of choice, which I experience to
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: be so great that I am unable to conceive the
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: idea of another that shall be more ample and extended.
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: So that it is chiefly my will which leads me
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: to discern that I bear a certain image and similitude
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: of Deity. For although the faculty of will is incomparably
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: greater in God than in myself, as well in respect
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: of the knowledge and power that are conjoined with it,
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: and that render it stronger and more efficacious, as in
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: respect of the object, since in Him it extends to
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: a greater number of things, it does not nevertheless appear
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: to me greater considered in itself. Formally and precisely, for
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: the power of will consists only in this that we
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: are able to do or not to do the same thing,
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: that is, to affirm or deny, to pursue or shun it,
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: or rather, in this alone, that in affirming or denying,
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: pursuing or shunning what is proposed to us by the understanding,
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: we so act that we are not conscious of being
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: determined to a particular action by any external force. For
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: to the possession of freedom, it is not necessary that
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: I be alike indifferent toward each of two contraries. But
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: on the contrary, the more I am inclined toward the one,
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: whether because I clearly know that in it there is
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: the reason of truth and goodness, or because God thus
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: internally disposes my thought, the more freely do I choose
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: and embrace it, and assuredly divine grace and natural knowledge
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: very far from diminishing liberty, rather augment and fortify it.
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: But the indifference of which I am conscious, when I
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: am not impelled to one side rather than to another
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: for want of a reason, is the lowest grade of liberty,
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: and manifests defect or negation of knowledge, rather than perfection
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: of will. For if I always clearly knew what was
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: true and good, I should never have any difficulty in
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: determining what judgment I ought to come to and what
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: choice I ought to make, And I should thus be
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: entirely free, without ever being indifferent from all this. I discover, however,
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: that neither the power of willing, which I have received
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: from God, is of itself the source of my errors,
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: for it is exceedingly ample and perfect in its kind,
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: nor even the power of understanding, For as I conceive
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: no object unless by means of the faculty that God
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: bestowed upon me, all that I conceive is doubtless rightly
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: conceived by me, and it is impossible for me to
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: be deceived in it. Whence then spring my errors. They
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: arise from this cause alone. That I do not restrain
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: the will, which is of much wider range than the understanding,
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: within the same limits, but extend it even to things
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: I do not understand. And as the will is of
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: itself indifferent to such, it readily falls into error and
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: sin by choosing the false in room of the true,
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 1: and evil instead of good. For example, when I lately
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: considered whether aught really existed in the world, and found
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: that because I considered this question, it very manifestly followed
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: that I myself existed, I could not but judge that
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: what I so clearly conceived was true, not that I
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: was forced to this judgment by any external cause, but
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: simply because great clearness of the understanding was succeeded by
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: strong inclination in the will. And I believed this the
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: more freely and spontaneously, in proportion as I was less
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: indifferent with respect to it. But now I not only
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: know that I exist in so far as I am
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: a thinking being, but there is likewise presented to my
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: mind a certain idea of corporeal nature. Hence I am
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: in doubt as to whether the thinking nature which is
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: in me, or rather which I myself am, is different
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: from that corporeal nature, or whether both are merely one
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: and the same thing. And I here suppose that I
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: am as yet ignorant of any reason that would determine
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: me to adopt the one belief in preference to the other.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: Whence it happens that it is a matter of perfect
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: indifference to me which of the two suppositions I affirm
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: or deny, or whether I form any judgment at all
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: in the matter. This indifference, moreover extends not only to
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: things of which the Understanding has no knowledge at all,
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: but in general also to all those which it does
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: not discover with perfect clearness at the moment the will
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: is deliberating upon them. For however probable the conjectures may
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: be that dispose me to form a judgment in a
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: particular matter, the simple knowledge that these are merely conjectures
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: and not certain and indubitable reasons, is sufficient to lead
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: me to form one that is directly the opposite of this.
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: I lately had abundant experience when I laid aside as
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: false all that I had before held for true, on
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: the single ground that I could in some degree doubt
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: of it. But if I abstain from judging of a
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: thing when I do not conceive it with sufficient clearness
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: and distinctness, it is plain that I act rightly and
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: am not deceived. But if I resolve to deny or affirm,
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: I then do not make a right use of my
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: free will. And if I affirm what is false, it
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: is evident that I am deceived. Moreover, even although I
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: judge according to truth, I stumble upon it by chance,
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: and do not therefore escape the imputation of a wrong
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: use of my freedom. For it is a dictate of
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: the natural light that the knowledge of the understanding ought
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: always to precede the determination of the will, and It
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: is this wrong use of the freedom of the will
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: in which is found the privation that constitutes the form
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: of error. Privation, I say, is found in the act
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: in so far as it proceeds from myself, But it
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: does not exist in the faculty which I received from God,
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: nor even in the Act in so far as it
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: depends on him. For I have assuredly no reason to
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: complain that God has not given me a greater power
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: of intelligence or more perfect natural light than he has
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: actually bestowed, since it is of the nature of a
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: finite understanding not to comprehend many things, and of the
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: nature of a created understanding to be finite. On the contrary,
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: I have every reason to render thanks to God, who
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: owed me nothing, for having given me all the perfections
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 1: I possess. And I should be far from thinking that
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: He has unjustly deprived me of or kept back the
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: other perfections which He has not bestowed upon me. I
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: have no reason moreover to complain, because He has given
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: me a will more ample than my understanding. Since as
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: the will consists only of a single element, and that indivisible,
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: it would appear that this fact ciculty is of such
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: a nature that nothing could be taken from it without
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: destroying it. And certainly the more extensive it is, the
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: more cause I have to thank the goodness of Him
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: who bestowed it upon me. And finally, I ought not
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: also to complain that God concurs with me in forming
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: the acts of this will or the judgment in which
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 1: I am deceived, because those acts are wholly true and
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: good in so far as they depend on God, and
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: the ability to form them is a higher degree of
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 1: perfection in my nature than the want of it would be.
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: In regard to privation, in which alone consists the formal
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: reason of error and sin. This does not require the
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: concurrence of Deity, because it is not a thing or existence,
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: And if it be referred to God as to its cause,
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: it ought not to be called privation but negation, according
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: to the signification of these words in the schools. For
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: in truth, it is no ima perfection in Deity that
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: He has accorded to me the power of giving or
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: withholding my assent from certain things of which He has
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: not put a clear and distinct knowledge in my understanding.
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: But it is doubtless an imperfection in me that I
• 2:24:16
  Speaker 1: do not use my freedom aright and readily give my
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: judgment on matters which I only obscurely and confusedly conceive.
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: I perceive nevertheless that it was easy for Deity so
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: to have constituted me as that I should never be deceived,
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: although I still remained free and possessed of a limited knowledge,
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: namely by implanting in my understanding a clear and distinct
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: knowledge of all the objects respecting which I should ever
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: have to deliberate, or simply by so deeply engraving on
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 1: my memory the resolution to judge of nothing without previously
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 1: possessing a clear and distinct conception of it, that I
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 1: should never forget it. And I easily understand that in
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: so far as I consider myself as a single whole,
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: without reference to any other being in the universe, I
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: should have been much more perfect than I now am,
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: had Deity created me superior to error. But I cannot
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: therefore deny that it is not, somehow a greater perfection
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 1: in the universe, that certain parts of it are not
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: exempt from defect as others are, than if they were
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: all perfectly alike. And I have no right to complain,
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: because God, who placed me in the world was not
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 1: willing that I should sustain that character, which, of all
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: others is the chief and most perfect. I have even
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: good reason to remain satisfied on the ground that if
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: he has not given me the perfection of being superior
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: to error by the first means I have pointed out above,
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: which depends on a clear and evident knowledge of all
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 1: the matters regarding me which I can deliberate, he has
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: at least left in my power the other means, which
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: is firmly to retain the resolution never to judge where
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: the truth is not clearly known to me. For although
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: I am conscious of the weakness of not being able
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: to keep my mind continually fixed on the same thought,
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: I can nevertheless, by attentive and oft repeated meditation, impress
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: it so strongly on my memory that I shall never
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: fail to recollect it as often as I require it,
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: and can acquire in this way the habitude of not erring.
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: And since it is in being superior to error that
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 1: the highest and chief perfection of man consists, I deem
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: that I have not gained little by this day's meditation
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: in having discovered the source of error and falsity. And
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: certainly this can be no other than what I have
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: now explained, for as often as I so restrain my
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 1: will with thid than the limits of my knowledge, that
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: it forms no judgment except regarding objects which are clearly
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 1: and distinctly represented to it. By the understanding, I can
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 1: never be deceived, because every clear and distinct conception is
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: doubtless something, and as such cannot owe its origin to nothing,
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: but must of necessity have God for its author. God,
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: I say, who, as supremely perfect, cannot without a contradiction,
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: be the cause of any error. And consequently it is
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 1: necessary to conclude that every such conception or judgment is true.
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: Nor have I merely learned today what I must avoid
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: to escape error, but also what I must do to
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 1: arrive at the knowledge of truth. For I will assuredly
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 1: reach truth if I only fix my attention sufficiently on
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: all the things I conceive perfectly, and separate these from
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: others which I conceive more confusedly and obscurely, to which
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 1: for the future I shall give diligent heed. End. Fourth meditation.
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. Fifth meditation. This
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Meditations on first Philosophy by Renee Descartes,
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: fifth Meditation of the Essence of material things, and again
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 1: of God that he exists. Several other questions remain for consideration,
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: respecting the attributes of God and my own nature or mind.
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: I will, however, on some other occasion, perhaps resume the
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 1: investigation of these. Meanwhile, as I have discovered what must
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: be done and what avoided to arrive at the knowledge
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: of truth, what I have chiefly to do is to
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: essay to emerge from the state of doubt in which
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: I have for some time been, and to discover whether
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: anything can be known with certainty regarding material objects. But
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 1: before considering whether such objects as I conceive exist without me,
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: I must examine their ideas in so far as these
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 1: are to be found in my consciousness, and discover which
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 1: of them are distinct and which confused. In the first place,
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: I distinctly imagine that quantity which the philosophers commonly call continuous,
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: or the extension in length, breadth, and depth, that is
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 1: in this quantity, or rather in the object to which
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: it is attributed. Further, I can enumerate in it many
• 2:30:18
  Speaker 1: diverse parts, and attribute to each of these all sorts
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: of sizes, figures, situations, and local motions. And in fine
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 1: I can assign to each of these motions all degrees
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 1: of duration. And I not only distinctly know these things
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: when I thus consider them in general, but besides, by
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: little attention, I discover innumerable particulars respecting figures, numbers, motion,
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: and the like, which are so evidently true and so
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: accordant with my nature, that when I now discover them,
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: I do not so much appear to learn anything new
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: as to call to remembrance what I before knew, or
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: for the first time to remark what was before in
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: my mind but to which I had not hitherto directed
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 1: my attention. And what I here find of most importance
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: is that I discover in my mind innumerable ideas of
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: certain objects which cannot be esteemed pure negations, although perhaps
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: they possess no reality beyond my thought, and which are
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 1: not framed by me, though it may be in my
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: power to think or not to think them, but possessed
• 2:31:35
  Speaker 1: true and immutable natures of their own, as for example,
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: when I imagine a triangle, although there is not perhaps,
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: and never was in any place in the universe apart
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: from my thought one such figure. It remains true, nevertheless,
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 1: that this figure possesses a certain determinate nature, form or essence,
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 1: which is immutable and eternal, and not framed by me,
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: nor in any degree dependent on my thought, as appears
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: from the circumstance, that diverse properties of the triangle may
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 1: be demonstrated, namely that its three angles are equal to two, right,
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: that its greatest side is subtended by its greatest angle,
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: and the like which, whether I will or not, I
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 1: now clearly discern to belong to it, although before I
• 2:32:30
  Speaker 1: did not at all think of them, when for the
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: first time I imagined a triangle, and which accordingly cannot
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: be said to have been invented by me. Nor is
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: it a valid objection to allege that perhaps this idea
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: of a triangle came into my mind by the medium
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 1: of the senses, through my having seen bodies of a
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: triangular figure. For I am able to form in thought
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: an innumerable variety of figures with regard to which it
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 1: cannot be suppose that they were ever objects of sense,
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: and I can nevertheless demonstrate diverse properties of their nature
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: no less than of the triangle, all of which are
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: assuredly true, since I clearly conceive them, and they are
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: therefore something and not mere negations. For it is highly
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 1: evident that all that is true is something, truth, being
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: identical with existence. And I have already fully shown the
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 1: truth of the principle that whatever is clearly and distinctly
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: known is true. And although this had not been demonstrated yet,
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: the nature of my mind is such as to compel
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: me to assert to what I clearly conceive while I
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 1: so conceive it, and I recollect that even when I
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: still strongly adhered to the objects of sense, I reckoned
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: among the number of the most certain truths those I
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: clearly conceived relating to figures and other matters that pertain
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: to arithmetic and geometry, and in general to the pure mathematics.
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: But now, if because I can draw from my thought
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 1: the idea of an object, it follows that all I
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: clearly and distinctly apprehend to pertain to this object does,
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 1: in truth belong to it. May I not from this
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: derive an argument for the existence of God? It is
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: certain that I no less find the idea of a
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 1: God in my consciousness that is, the idea of a
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 1: being supremely perfect than that of any figure or number whatever.
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 1: And I know with not less clearness and distinctness that
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: an actual and eternal existence pertains to his nature than
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 1: that all which is demonstrable of any figure or number
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: really belongs to the nature of that figure or number.
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 1: And therefore, although all the conclusions of the preceding meditations
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: were false, the existence of God would pass with me
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 1: for a truth at least as certain as I ever
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: judged any truth of mathematics to be. Indeed, such a
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 1: doctrine may at first sight appear to contain more sophistry
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 1: than truth. For as I have been accustomed in every
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 1: other matter to distinguish between existence and essence, I easily
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: believe that the existence can be separated from the essence
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 1: of God, and that thus God may be conceived as
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: not actually existing. But nevertheless, when I think of it
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: more attentively, it appears that the existence can no more
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: be separated from the essence of God than the idea
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: of a mountain from that of a valley, or the
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: equality of its three angles to two right angles from
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: the essence of a rectilinear triangle. So that it is
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 1: not less impossible to conceive a God, that is, a
• 2:35:55
  Speaker 1: being supremely perfect, to whom existence is a wanting or
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: who is devoid of a certain perfection, than to conceive
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: a mountain without a valley. But though in truth I
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: cannot conceive a God unless as existing, any more than
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: I can a mountain without a valley. Yet just as
• 2:36:17
  Speaker 1: it does not follow that there is any mountain in
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: the world merely because I conceive a mountain with a valley,
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: so likewise, though I conceive God as existing, it does
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 1: not seem to follow on that account that God exists,
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 1: for my thought imposes no necessity on things. And as
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: I may imagine a winged horse though there be none such,
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: so I could perhaps attribute existence to God though no
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 1: God existed. But the cases are not analogous, and a
• 2:36:50
  Speaker 1: fallacy lurks under the semblance of this objection. For because
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 1: I cannot conceive a mountain without a valley, it does
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: not follow that there is any mountain or valley in existence,
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: but simply that the mountain or valley, whether they do
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: or do not exist, are inseparable from each other. Whereas,
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, because I cannot conceive God. Unless
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 1: as existing, it follows that existence is inseparable from him,
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: and therefore that he really exists. Not that this is
• 2:37:23
  Speaker 1: brought about by my thought, or that it imposes any
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: necessity on things, but on the contrary, the necessity which
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: lies in the thing itself, that is, the necessity of
• 2:37:36
  Speaker 1: the existence of God, determines me to think in this way.
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 1: For it is not in my power to conceive a
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 1: God without existence, that is, a being supremely perfect and
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 1: yet devoid of an absolute perfection, as I am free
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: to imagine a horse with or without wings. Nor must
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 1: it be alleged here as an objection, that it is
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 1: in truth necessary to admit that God exists, after having
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: supposed him to possess all perfections, since existence is one
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: of them, but that my original supposition was not necessary,
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 1: just as it is not necessary to think that all
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: quadrilateral figures can be inscribed in the circle, since if
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 1: I suppose this, I should be constrained to admit that
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 1: the rhombus, being a figure of four sides, can be
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 1: therein inscribed, which however, is manifestly false. This objection is,
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: I say, incompetent. For although it may not be necessary
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 1: that I shall at any time entertain the notion of deity.
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 1: Yet each time I happen to think of a first
• 2:38:45
  Speaker 1: and sovereign being, and to draw, so to speak, the
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 1: idea of him from the storehouse of the mind, I
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 1: am necessitated to attribute to him all kinds of perfections,
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 1: though I may not then enumerate them all, nor think
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: of each of them in particular. And this necessity is
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 1: sufficient as soon as I discover that existence is a
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: perfection to cause me to infer the existence of this
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 1: first and sovereign being. Just as it is not necessary
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: that I should ever imagine any triangle. But whenever I
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 1: am desirous of considering a rectilinear figure composed of only
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: three angles, it is absolutely necessary to attribute to those
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 1: properties to it from which it is correctly inferred that
• 2:39:31
  Speaker 1: its three angles are not greater than two right angles.
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: Although perhaps I may not then advert to this relation
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 1: in particular. But when I consider what figures are capable
• 2:39:42
  Speaker 1: of being inscribed in the circle, it is by no
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: means necessary to hold that all quadrilateral figures are of
• 2:39:48
  Speaker 1: this number. On the contrary, I cannot even imagine such
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 1: to be the case, so long as I shall be
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 1: unwilling to accept in thought ought that I do not
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 1: clearly and distinctly conceive. And consequently, there is a vast
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: difference between false suppositions, as is the one in question,
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 1: and the true ideas that were born with me, the
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: first and chief of which is the idea of God.
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 1: For indeed, I discern on many grounds that this idea
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 1: is not factitious, depending simply on my thought, but that
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 1: it is the representation of a true and immutable nature.
• 2:40:25
  Speaker 1: In the first place, because I can conceive of no
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: other being except God, to whose essence existence necessarily pertains.
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 1: In the second, because it is impossible to conceive two
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: or more gods of this kind, and it being supposed
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: that one such God exists, I clearly see that he
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: must have existed from all eternity and will exist to
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: all eternity. And finally, because I apprehend many other properties
• 2:40:55
  Speaker 1: in God, none of which I can either diminish or change.
• 2:41:01
  Speaker 1: But indeed, whatever mode of probation I, in the end adopt,
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: it always returns to this, that it is only the
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 1: things I clearly and distinctly conceive which have the power
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 1: of completely persuading me. And although of the objects I
• 2:41:16
  Speaker 1: conceive in this manner. Some indeed are obvious to everyone,
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 1: while others are only discovered after close and careful investigation. Nevertheless,
• 2:41:26
  Speaker 1: after they are once discovered, the latter are not esteemed
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: less certain than the former. Thus, for example, to take
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 1: the case of a right angled triangle, although it is
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 1: not so manifest at first that the square of the
• 2:41:40
  Speaker 1: base is equal to the squares of the other two sides,
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: as that the base is opposite to the greatest angle, Nevertheless,
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: after it is once apprehended, we are as firmly persuaded
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: of the truth of the former as of the latter.
• 2:41:55
  Speaker 1: And with respect to God, if I were not preoccupied
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 1: by prejudices, and my thought beset on all sides by
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 1: the continual presence of the images of sensible objects, I
• 2:42:07
  Speaker 1: should know nothing sooner or more easily than the fact
• 2:42:10
  Speaker 1: of His being. For is there any truth more clear
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: than the existence of a supreme being or of God?
• 2:42:18
  Speaker 1: Seeing it is to his essence alone that necessary and
• 2:42:22
  Speaker 1: eternal existence pertains. And although the right conception of this
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: truth has cost me much close thinking, nevertheless, at present
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: I feel not only as assured of it as of
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: what I deem most certain, but I remark further that
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: the certitude of all other truths is so absolutely dependent
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 1: on it, that without this knowledge it is impossible ever
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 1: to know anything perfectly. For although I am of such
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: a nature as to be unable, while I possess a
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 1: very clear and distinct apprehension of a matter, to resist
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 1: the conviction of its truth. Yet because my constitution is
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 1: also such as to incapacitate me from keeping my mind
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: continually fixed on the same object. And as I frequently
• 2:43:09
  Speaker 1: recollect a past judgment without at the same time being
• 2:43:11
  Speaker 1: able to recall the grounds of it, it may happen, meanwhile,
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 1: that other reasons are presented to me, which would readily
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 1: cause me to change my opinion if I did not
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: know that God existed, and thus I should possess no
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: true and certain knowledge, but merely vague and vacillating opinions. Thus,
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 1: for example, when I consider the nature of the rectilinear triangle,
• 2:43:36
  Speaker 1: it must clearly appears to me, who have been instructed
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: in the principles of geometry, that its three angles are
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 1: equal to two right angles. And I find it impossible
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 1: to believe otherwise while I apply my mind to the demonstration.
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 1: But as soon as I cease from attending to the
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: process of proof, although I still remember that I had
• 2:43:56
  Speaker 1: a clear comprehension of it. Yet I may readily come
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 1: to doubt of the truth demonstrated if I do not
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 1: know that there is a God. For I may persuade
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 1: myself that I have been so constituted by nature as
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 1: to be sometimes deceived, even in matters which I think
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 1: I apprehend with the greatest evidence and certitude, especially when
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 1: I recollect that I frequently considered many things to be
• 2:44:19
  Speaker 1: true uncertain, which other reasons afterward constrained me to reckon
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 1: as wholly false. But after I have discovered that God exists,
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 1: seeing I also at the same time observed that all
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 1: things depend on Him, and that he is no deceiver,
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 1: and thence inferred that all which I clearly and distinctly
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: perceive is of necessity true. Although I no longer attend
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 1: to the grounds of a judgment, no opposite reason can
• 2:44:48
  Speaker 1: be alleged sufficient to lead me to doubt of its truth,
• 2:44:51
  Speaker 1: provided only I remember that I once possessed a clear
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: and distinct comprehension of it. My knowledge of it thus
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 1: becomes true and certain. And this same knowledge extends likewise
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: to whatever I remember to have formerly demonstrated as the
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 1: truths of geometry and the like, For what can be
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: alleged against them to lead me to doubt of them?
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: Will it be that my nature is such that I
• 2:45:18
  Speaker 1: may be frequently deceived, but I already know that I
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: cannot be deceived in judgments of the ground of which
• 2:45:24
  Speaker 1: I possess a clear knowledge. Will it be that I
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 1: formerly deemed things to be true and certain, which I
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 1: afterward discovered to be false? But I had no clear
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: and distinct knowledge of any of those things, And, being
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: as yet ignorant of the rule by which I am
• 2:45:41
  Speaker 1: assured of the truth of a judgment, I was led
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: to give my assent to them on grounds which I
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: afterward discovered were less strong than at the time I imagined
• 2:45:50
  Speaker 1: them to be. What further objection, then is there? Will
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 1: it be said that perhaps I am dreaming, an objection
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 1: I lately myself self raised, or that all the thoughts
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 1: of which I am now conscious have no more truth
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 1: than the reveries of my dreams. But although in truth
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 1: I should be dreaming, the rule still holds that all
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 1: which is clearly presented to my intellect is indisputably true.
• 2:46:18
  Speaker 1: And thus I very clearly see that the certitude and
• 2:46:22
  Speaker 1: truth of all science depends on the knowledge alone of
• 2:46:25
  Speaker 1: the True God, insomuch that before I knew Him, I
• 2:46:29
  Speaker 1: could have no perfect knowledge of any other thing, And
• 2:46:33
  Speaker 1: now that I know Him, I possess the means of
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 1: acquiring a perfect knowledge respecting innumerable matters, as well relative
• 2:46:40
  Speaker 1: to God himself and other intellectual objects. As to corporeal nature,
• 2:46:45
  Speaker 1: in so far as it is the object of pure mathematics,
• 2:46:48
  Speaker 1: which do not consider whether it exists or not. End
• 2:46:55
  Speaker 1: Fifth meditation. This recording is in the public domain. Sixth meditation.
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 2:47:17
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Meditations on first Philosophy by Rene Descartes.
• 2:47:31
  Speaker 1: Sixth meditation, of the existence of material things and of
• 2:47:36
  Speaker 1: the real distinction between the mind and body of man.
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 1: There now only remains the inquiry as to whether material
• 2:47:46
  Speaker 1: things exist. With regard to this question, I at least
• 2:47:51
  Speaker 1: know with certainty that such things may exist in as
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 1: far as they constitute the object of the pure mathematics.
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 1: Since regard rarding them. In this aspect, I can conceive
• 2:48:02
  Speaker 1: them clearly and distinctly. For there can be no doubt
• 2:48:05
  Speaker 1: that God possesses the power of producing all the objects
• 2:48:08
  Speaker 1: I am able distinctly to conceive, and I never considered
• 2:48:12
  Speaker 1: anything impossible to him, unless when I experienced a contradiction
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 1: in the attempt to conceive it aright. Further, the faculty
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 1: of imagination, which I possess, and of which I am
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: conscious that I make use when I apply myself to
• 2:48:28
  Speaker 1: the consideration of material things, is sufficient to persuade me
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 1: of their existence. For when I attentively consider what imagination is,
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 1: I find that it is simply a certain application of
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 1: the cognitive faculty to a body which is immediately present
• 2:48:44
  Speaker 1: to it, and which therefore exists. And to render this
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 1: quite clear, I remark in the first place the difference
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 1: that subsists between imagination and pure intellection or conception. For example,
• 2:49:00
  Speaker 1: when I imagine a triangle, I not only conceive that it
• 2:49:04
  Speaker 1: is a figure comprehended by three lines, but at the
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 1: same time also I look upon these three lines as
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 1: present by the power and internal application of my mind.
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 1: And this is what I call imagining. But if I
• 2:49:18
  Speaker 1: desire to think of a chiliagon, I indeed rightly conceive
• 2:49:21
  Speaker 1: that it is a figure composed of a thousand sides,
• 2:49:24
  Speaker 1: as easily as I conceive that a triangle is a
• 2:49:26
  Speaker 1: figure composed of only three sides. But I cannot imagine
• 2:49:30
  Speaker 1: the thousand sides of a chiliagon, as I do the
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 1: three sides of a triangle.