Rene Descartes
Listen to me.
So obviously, you thought that you existed.
You're probably reading this at some kind of device, with a visible body. Hands, feet, a face, you know, the whole thing.
But is that really true?
Are you a human being, with a body, on Earth?
What if all that is wrong? I doubt that we exist in this way.
You could be an octopus, with a wallet, on Neptune. Or a bottle of wine, with a folder, on Mars.
Seriously, it's like a board game.
This is what we call the process of Cartesian doubt.
So, if that's not the case, then what am I?[edit | edit source]
Am I... a body?[edit | edit source]
Well, I must have a physical appearance of some kind... in my case, that's the human body.
Close your eyes, we'll get to it.
Imagine... that you are now flying on the back of a unicorn. And that your body, has somehow merged with that of the unicorn, meaning you no longer feel what it's like to be human.
Well... that's just imagination. What does that mean for anything?
How do you prove THIS is reality? What if everything is like your imagination? The senses occasionally deceive us, so...
Oh right then. I guess I may not be a body at all.
Does a square still have four sides?[edit | edit source]
Hello there.
How are you doing, you little thing?
I am a MALICIOUS DEMON, and I am going to wave things in your face. By 'things'... I mean pieces of information.
You see this? waves a card This is a SQUARE. It has FOUR sides.
And a triangle has THREE sides.
And if you multiply three by five, the result is FIFTEEN.
Well, in actually, all I did was trick you into believing these things were true. Actually, in the REAL WORLD (which you will never get to experience, at least not in this life) a square has six sides, a triangle has seven, and if you multiply three by five, the result is CHICKEN QUESADILLAS.
Doubt everything!
That's what Rene Descartes says.
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