"I suppose, then, that all the things that I see are
false; I persuade myself that nothing has ever existed of all that my
fallacious memory represents to me. I consider that I possess no senses; I
imagine that body, figure, extension, movement and place are but the fictions
of my mind. What, then, can be esteemed as true? Perhaps nothing at all, unless
that there is nothing in the world that is certain."
"—But how can I know there is not something different from
those things that I have just considered, of which one cannot have the
slightest doubt? Is there not some God, or some other being by whatever name we
call it, who puts these reflections into my mind? That is not necessary, for is
it not possible that I am capable of producing them myself? I myself, am I not
at least something? But I have already denied that I had senses and body. Yet I
hesitate, for what follows from that? Am I so dependent on body and senses that
I cannot exist without these?"
—Not at all; of a surety I myself did exist since I
persuaded myself of something [or merely because I thought of something]. But
there is some deceiver or other, very powerful and very cunning, who ever
employs his ingenuity in deceiving me. Then without doubt I exist also if he
deceives me, and let him deceive me as much as he will, he can never cause me
to be nothing so long as I think that I am something"
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