I will suppose that some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.
I shall think of your post, my keyboard, the sky, the air, the earth, all colours, shapes, sounds and all external things as merely the delusions of dreams. Dreams devised to ensnare my judgment. I shall consider myself as not having hands, or eyes, or ascii, or bandwidth, or ganja, but as falsely believing that I have all these things.
I shall stubbornly and firmly persist in this meditation; and, even if it is not in my power to know any truth, I shall at least do what is in my power: I will resolutely guard against assenting to any falsehoods, so that the deceiver, however powerful and cunning he may be, will be unable to impose on me in the slightest degree.
(… remembering that most search engines suck now and so people who don’t recognize it might have trouble finding out what that’s from: it’s Descartes.)
I will suppose that some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me.
I shall think of your post, my keyboard, the sky, the air, the earth, all colours, shapes, sounds and all external things as merely the delusions of dreams. Dreams devised to ensnare my judgment. I shall consider myself as not having hands, or eyes, or ascii, or bandwidth, or ganja, but as falsely believing that I have all these things.
I shall stubbornly and firmly persist in this meditation; and, even if it is not in my power to know any truth, I shall at least do what is in my power: I will resolutely guard against assenting to any falsehoods, so that the deceiver, however powerful and cunning he may be, will be unable to impose on me in the slightest degree.
(… remembering that most search engines suck now and so people who don’t recognize it might have trouble finding out what that’s from: it’s Descartes.)