You Exist
Table of Contents
There are some people who think they are bodies full of water or have some giant body parts.
They would swear that they see this and feel it just as they imagine it.
Yet he would be outrage if he were told that he was merely imagining it.
Likewise, it is possible that I am talking to you in a dream right now.
Those are reasons strong enough to overturn all of Epistemon’s science.
I would fear being at least a little mad if, never having studied nor accustomed my mind to turn away from sensible things, I were to apply it to meditations that surpass my strength.
I believe it is very dangerous to go too far down this path of reasoning: universal doubts of this kind lead us straight to the ignorance of Socrates or the uncertainty of the Pyrrhonians, which is like a deep water where no footing can be found.
I admit that it is not without great danger that one ventures there without a guide, without knowing the ford, and that many have indeed gotten lost; but you need fear nothing if you follow in my footsteps.
It is fears like these, in fact, that have prevented many learned men from acquiring knowledge solid and certain enough to deserve the name of science.
They imagined that there was nothing firmer or more solid on which they could rest their belief than sensible things; thus they built upon sand, rather than seeking, by digging deeper, a firm foundation. This is not where we should stop. There is more: even if you did not examine further the reasons I have just given, they would still have fulfilled their main purpose—if they have struck your mind enough to put you on guard.
They show that your science is not so infallible that you should not fear to see its foundations overthrown, since they make you doubt everything, and you are already doubting your science itself. They therefore prove that I have achieved my goal, which was to overthrow your science by revealing its uncertainty. But, for fear that you might refuse to follow me further, I declare to you that these doubts, which frightened you at first, are like those phantoms and empty images that appear at night in the uncertain glow of a dim light. Fear pursues you if you flee from them, but approach, touch them—you will find only air, a shadow—and you will be reassured forever.
I am convinced by your reasoning.
I now wish to consider all these difficulties in their full strength, and to apply myself to doubt whether perhaps I have been delirious all my life, whether even all these ideas which I believed entered my mind, so to speak, through the door of the senses, might not have formed of themselves, just as similar ideas form when I sleep or when I am certain my eyes are closed, my ears stopped—in a word, when none of my senses are involved. In this way I will doubt not only whether you are in the world, whether the earth exists, whether there is a sun, but even whether I have eyes, ears, a body, whether I am speaking with you, whether you are addressing me—in a word, I will doubt everything.
There are consequences from this.
You clearly see that you can reasonably doubt all the things whose knowledge comes to you only through the senses; but can you doubt your doubt, and remain uncertain whether you are doubting or not?
This astonishes me, and the little clarity I have from a rather modest common sense makes me look upon myself with amazement, forced to admit that I know nothing with certainty, but that I doubt everything, and that I am certain of nothing.
But what do you intend to conclude from this?
I do not see the use of this universal astonishment, nor for what reason a doubt of this sort could be a principle that we must deduce from so far.
On the contrary, you stated that the purpose of this conversation was to rid us of our doubts and to teach us to find truths that even Epistemon, learned as he is, might well ignore.
Just give me your attention; I am going to take you farther than you imagine. Indeed, it is from this universal doubt that, like from a fixed and immutable point, I have resolved to derive the knowledge of God, of yourself, and of everything contained in the world.
Those are certainly great promises, and they are well worth granting you what you ask, provided that you fulfill them. So keep your promises, and we will keep ours.
Since then you cannot deny that you are doubting, and on the contrary it is certain that you are doubting—and so certain that you cannot even doubt that—you must also be, you who are doubting; and this is so true that you cannot doubt it any further.
I agree with you; for if I did not exist, I could not doubt.
You exist then, and you know that you exist, and you know it because you doubt.
All of that is very true.
You exist, and you know that you exist.
You know this because you know that you doubt. But you, who doubt everything and cannot doubt yourself—who are you?
I am a man.
The schools say that a man is a rational animal.
But what is an animal? What is rational?
If an animal is a living being as an animated body which is a corporeal substance.
This does not answer the question.