Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes
René Descarteswas a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Dubbed the father of modern western philosophy, much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. He spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic...
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth31 March 1596
CityIndre-et-Loire, France
dream perception right-now
It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false.
dream vivid latter
For how do we know that the thoughts which occur in dreaming are false rather than those others which we experience when awake, since the former are often not less vivid and distinct than the latter?
dream perfect body
Hence reason also demands that, since our thoughts cannot all be true because we are not wholly perfect, what truth they do possess must inevitably be found in the thoughts we have when awake, rather than in our dreams.
love dream waking
When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
dream sleep waking
But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.
dream ideas mind
Even if I were to suppose that I was dreaming and whatever I saw or imagined was false, yet I could not deny that ideas were truly in my mind.
dream sleep awake-at-night
I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
dream life-is certain
How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
doubt philosophy therefore
Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum.(I doubt, therefore I think; I think therefore I am)
best common habit hardest matters satisfy thinks
Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for everyone thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have
determine follow ought power probable
When it is not in our power to determine what it true, we ought to follow what is most probable
desire fairly good hardest respect satisfy thinks
Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have.
strange
There is nothing so strange or so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another
books books-and-reading conversation finest good men past reading
The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.