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1.
- “Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had
accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the
whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was
necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely
and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything
at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last.” (AT 17, p. 76)
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2.
- “Reason leads me to think that I should hold back my assent from opinions
which are not completely certain and indubitable just as carefully as I do
from those which are patently false. So, for the purpose of rejecting all my
opinions, it will be enough if I find in each of them at least some reason for
doubt.” (AT 18, p. 76)
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3.
- “But such people are insane, and I would be thought equally mad if I took
anything from them as a model for myself. A brilliant piece of reasoning!
As if I were not a man who sleeps at night, and regularly has all the same
experiences while asleep as madmen do when awake — indeed sometimes
even more improbable ones.” (AT 19, p. 77)
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4.
- “But perhaps God would not have wished me to be deceived in this
way, since he is said to be supremely good. But if it were inconsistent with
his goodness to have created me such that I am deceived all the time, it
would seem equally foreign to his goodness to allow me to be deceived even
occasionally; yet this last assertion cannot be made [in the French version:
“yet I cannot doubt that he does allow this”].” (AT 21, p. 78)
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5.
- “I am, I exist — that is certain. But for how long? For as long as I am
thinking. For it could be that were I totally to cease from thinking, I should
totally cease to exist. At present I am not admitting anything except what
is necessarily true. I am, then, in the strict sense only a thing that thinks.”
(AT 27, p. 82)
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6.
- “But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that
doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines
and has sensory perceptions.” (AT 28, p. 83)
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7.
- “For example, I am now seeing light, hearing a noise, feeling heat. But I
am asleep, so all this is false. Yet I certainly seem to see, to hear, and to be
warmed. This cannot be false; what is called ‘having a sensory perception’ is
strictly just this, and in this restricted sense of the term it is simply thinking.”
(AT 29, p. 83)