definitely you have hands

just have some

[Music]

these six papers or chapters

written by rene descartes in latin

originally

in 1641 these are maybe

the most famous most influential work of

philosophy from the

17th and 18th centuries in europe

okay so let me say something about the

author renee descartes

he was a french mathematician and

philosopher

his name is pronounced descartes and

when you're talking about stuff having

to do with him

philosophers often use the word

cartesian cartesian

means similar to or relating to

renee descartes this guy french guy

wrote in latin

he wrote six meditations these are six

chapters he calls them meditations but

they're just chapters of a philosophy

book

and in this video in this video lecture

we're going to talk about the first one

and then in subsequent lectures we're

going to go through all six of them

so if you're going to understand what

happens in this

first meditation in this first chapter

then you're going to have to understand

the distinction between

beliefs that are probably true things

that you believe that are probably true

and things that you believe that are 100

guaranteed to be true definitely true

let me start with some examples here's

an example

of a belief that i have something that i

think is true

and it's probably true i believe

that the speed of light in a vacuum

is 299 million

meters per second okay that's something

that i believe

why do i believe that well i believe it

because

i read it on wikipedia this morning so

it's probably true like some very

trustworthy scientists

they discovered that using some

experiments

good experiments and then wikipedia has

some very good procedures in place

for checking the accuracy of the

information
in their articles online right and some

articles are less trustworthy than more

articles like

wikipedia has this whole thing where you

know

they have trouble with articles about

people who are still alive human beings

who are still alive they get abused a

lot these articles and people write

false things in them but

this is about the speed of light so it's

very unlikely that the information in

this wikipedia article

is false so my belief that the speed of

light in a vacuum is 299 million meters

per second

that belief goes in the probably true

category

it's not guaranteed to be true because

there could be a typo or maybe the

scientists made a mistake

scientists can make mistakes every claim

that science makes seemingly goes in

this category

because it is possible for any

scientifically based belief to be false

although

probably not so probably true beliefs

those are the sort of things that go in

this category what sort of things go in

this category

well we don't know i can't tell you

that's because part of descartes whole

project in the meditations is to figure

out what goes over here

that's what he's going to try to do

indeed he's going to try to

see if he can support all of the

important things that he believes

and demonstrate that they belong in this

category

he's going to try to prove for example

that the existence of god he was a

religious christian french guy

in 1640 whatever right he's going to try

to prove

that the existence of god falls into

this category and a whole bunch of other

things ordinary things about

his life like that he lives in france or

whatever he wants to prove that that

is in this category as well if he can

so in order to figure out what goes in

this category

descartes is going to take all of his

current beliefs

and even if they fall into this category

he's going to stop believing them he's

going to
as he puts it treat them as if they're

definitely false and what you do with

definitely false beliefs

is you stop believing them so all the

stuff in this category he's gonna stop

believing them

and he's gonna in that way wipe out all

of his beliefs

and then he's gonna slowly rebuild his

system of beliefs he's only going to

believe the things

that he thinks he can prove for certain

this is the word

certain here right and this is the word

uncertain

he's only going to believe the things

that he knows for certain

and he's going to slowly build back up

all of his beliefs

believing new things only if he can

support those new beliefs

with you know guaranteed 100

fool-proof arguments that's the plan

now this plan takes all six meditations

in the first meditation which we're

talking about today and which we

you read for today in the first

meditation

he just wipes everything away that is he

demonstrates that all of these things

that he believes are

only probably true and when he shows

that they're only probably true that

it's possible to doubt them he stops

believing them

that's what he does in meditation one is

he wipes everything away he starts with

a clean slate then

in meditations two three four five and

six

he brings everything back demonstrating

that all of these beliefs or almost all

of them

right are actually guaranteed to be true

okay so i'm now going to read for you

the two sentences

early in meditation one where descartes

explains that this is his plan the plan

that i just

explained to you he explains it in two

sentences here they are

ready reason now leads me to think

that i should hold back my ascent from

opinions

which are not completely certain and

indubitable

just as carefully as i do from those

which are patently false

right so the idea in this sentence is

that

well what do you do with beliefs that

are patently or obviously false

you hold back your belief from them that

is you don't believe in those things

right if i told you that i wrote a

unicorn

here this morning you'd say well that's

obviously false

i'm not going to believe it well that's

what he's going to do for

anything that can be doubted right

reason now leads me to think so this is

what i should do if i want to be

rational

right i should hold back my ascent from

opinions

which are not completely certain and

indubitable

just as carefully as i do from those

which are patently false so

hold back my agreement or my belief in

those claims

that's what he's going to do and then he

says so

for the purpose of rejecting all my

opinions it will be enough

if i find in each of them at least one

reason for doubt so for the purposes

of you know figuring out what's

definitely true

and and for the purposes of wiping out

all of the merely probably true beliefs

that he has

all he has to do is find one little

sliver of doubt and that's enough if he

finds that he's going to toss that

belief out

that's what's going to happen in the

first meditation

but notice there's a problem already

which is that

we've got a lot of beliefs like way too

many to test

each one how many beliefs do you have

like a trillion a trillion trillion i

mean you believe

now that i told you and you trust me you

believe that

the speed of light in a vacuum is 299

million meters per second

you believe that and you believe i don't

know

that north america includes

multiple countries and you believe that

um

grass is green you believe lots and lots

and lots of stuff

and you can't go through each one of

them and check oh

is it possible to doubt that is there

even a sliver of doubt is that certain

that would take forever and so descartes

comes

up with a plan he has a method

a way of wiping out all of these beliefs

that won't take forever

right the name of this method is the

method of doubt

here's the method i wrote it out

consider

big groups of beliefs and doubt all the

beliefs in that group

at once that's the plan so he's going to

take whole swaths of beliefs

and prove of all of them that it's

possible

that they are false all the beliefs in

that big group

and then once he's done that he's going

to toss out that whole

group okay well how's he going to

identify the groups

and toss them out well here's what he

says

and to do this i will not need to run

through them all

individually which would be an endless

task when he says them all

he means all of my beliefs right

it would take forever it would be an

endless task to go through all of my

beliefs and see if i could doubt each

one

once the foundations of a building are

undermined

anything built on them collapses of its

own accord

so i will go straight to the basic

principles on which all my former

beliefs

rested okay those two sentences

that's where he explains the method of

doubt so and that's it

that's the only explanation of the

method that we get is those two

sentences

now if i read those two sentences and

you're thinking to yourself

i don't really fully get it don't worry

i'm just going to explain it to you

right now here's what it is

the method is to pick out groups of

beliefs

by the basic principles on which they

are based

how do we understand this whole basic

principles bit
i believe a whole bunch of stuff let's

say because

my grandmother told me those things

and i'm using a basic principle

something like this

trust whatever my grandmother tells me

that's a basic principle

if i discover that my grandmother

sometimes lies sometimes

well then i've doubted this basic

principle i've shown that even though my

grandmother

you know typically leads me towards the

truth

it's possible that she's been lying to

me

and so all of the things that i believe

because my grandmother told me those

things they all fall into this category

of merely probably true

and if they fall into this category then

descartes is going to toss them and so

i'm going to toss them in this example

right and so by doubting this one basic

principle

i've doubted a whole bunch of beliefs

like

let's say a thousand or two thousand or

ten thousand things that i believe

because my grandmother told me those

things that's the method of doubt

so descartes is going to try to figure

out what basic principles

underlie all of his beliefs and then

he's going to see

if he can doubt the basic principles and

he will be able to doubt them

they won't be certain and then once he's

done that he's going to stop believing

all the things that are based on those

basic principles and he's going to go

through enough basic principles to get

rid of all of his beliefs

that's the plan for this meditation

that's the method of doubt

and in this quote these two sentences

that i read

about the method of doubt um he gives

this metaphor with like a building and

the foundation of the building

here's what's going on let's say you've

got a house and the house is made of

sticks these are the sticks of the house

okay there's the door i guess

whatever okay that's your house it's

made of sticks

it's a crappy house you don't like it

the roof leaks

and you know the wind it's drafty

whatever you don't like this house

you want a new house a firmer house

a sturdier house well what do you do

first thing you got to do is you got to

demolish your old house

and then you're going to build a new

house with like bricks or something

better

it would take too long to pluck off each

stick individually so what you do is you

go to the foundation the foundation is

the bottom of the house

you go to the bottom and you find the

sticks

that all the other sticks are resting on

and if you just

pull this one out well then a whole

bunch of the other sticks are going to

fall

and then you find another one down here

you pull that one out

and then this side falls next thing you

know you've done your first step

you've demolished the house that's what

descartes is doing except for he's doing

it with his beliefs

in meditation one he's finding the basic

principles

on which the other beliefs are based

doubting those
everything falls down he stops believing

everything and then starting in

meditation two he's gonna build

everything back up again

but on a firmer foundation

that's the idea so far we've only talked

about four sentences

of this whole meditation right we got

the big plan for all the meditations

that was in those first two sentences

that i read that appear in like

the second paragraph or whatever we had

those two sentences and then we had the

two sentences explaining the method of

doubt

in the very next sentence

descartes immediately starts to go

through his basic principles

he's not doing anything with principles

about his grandmother

that was just an example that i gave

right

he's gonna well he's gonna immediately

introduce a principle and he's going to

immediately undermine it in the next two

sentences

here's what he says whatever i have up

till now

accepted as most true i have acquired

either from the senses or through the

senses

okay let's stop there all right that's

the first basic principle

that he's going to consider the idea is

that he believes things

because he discovers those things

those facts putative facts he discovers

them through his senses

through a sense of sight and smell and

taste and touch and hearing

and whatever other senses there are

that's the first

principle

the first principle is trust whatever my

senses tell me

okay in the very next sentence he doubts

this principle

here's what he says to doubt it but from

time to time

i have found that the senses deceive and

it is prudent never to trust completely

those who have deceived us even once the

idea is that

sometimes your senses get things wrong

i see a spider on the wall and i jump

back

because i see it with my eyes but then

it turns out that the spider wasn't

really a spider
it was just a smudge on the wall

so my senses deceived me it seemed like

there was a spider there

but then on closer inspection it turns

out it's not a spider

the idea is that anything that descartes

believes

because he sees it or hears it or smells

it or tastes it or touches it or

anything like that

well those things aren't guaranteed to

be true they're just probably true

the senses can get things wrong and so

he's going to wipe out those beliefs

what he then does

in the next couple sentences is he

actually pulls back

he says that was too quick i don't want

to get rid of

everything that my senses tell me not

all at once

because some things that my senses tell

me

are more reliable than other things

here's what he says yet although the

senses occasionally deceive us

with respect to objects which are very

small

or in the distance there are many other

beliefs about which

doubt is quite impossible even though

they are derived from the senses

for example that i am here sitting by

the fire

wearing a winter dressing gown holding

this piece of paper in my hands

and so on again how could it be denied

that these hands or this whole body are

mine

what he's saying there is like look

it's true that you know i shouldn't

trust whatever my senses tell me

he says like you know about

small or distant

things right so the spider

in the example that i gave before the

spider is a small thing and

your senses can get things wrong you

know about small things like spiders

but my hands like i sense

that i have hands right or descartes is

like some

rich french guy so he's in like a i

don't even know if he was rich actually

sorry

forget that he was rich but he's some

french guy and he's sitting in his

winter dressing gown whatever that is

right like the fact that you're wearing

clothes that's not like a little spider

something far away that you can be

wrong about definitely you have hands

just have

some right definitely you are

wearing clothes sitting by the fire or

sitting in your house or whatever

right that stuff like that stuff is not

undermined those beliefs the beliefs

about the fact that you have hands that

sort of stuff that isn't undermined

by the fact that your senses can deceive

you

right only your you know

only the things that you believe about

small or distant things

so the first principle he sort of

revises it

he still doubted a lot of things he's

allowed it doubted his beliefs about far

away things or whatever

right and he's doubted them based on the

fact that

well um senses

can deceive

did i spell deceive right i don't know

no whatever anyway so we've got a

principle

it was a revised principle and now we've

doubted it so we've wiped away

descartes has wiped away all of his

beliefs about

you know small or distant things things

that he's seen

only from a distance but if he got up

close to something

or if something was large and he could

see it clearly or

smell it clearly without anything in the

way or hear it

without any distortion or i guess or

whatever right

then he thinks he can trust it right

that's the second principle

the next principle is that he can trust

whatever his senses tell him

about large and nearby things

we've already eliminated all this all

the beliefs that were based on this

principle

because we doubted this principle based

on this

and now we've got this principle so

descartes

is looking to see if there's any reason

to think any

sliver of doubt any reason to think that

this principle might not be a good one

on the basis of which

to acquire beliefs trust whatever your

senses tell you

about large nearby things like the fact

that you

have hands well he does think that

there's reason to doubt

this basic principle and it happens only

like three or four sentences later

here's what he says how often

asleep at night am i convinced of just

such familiar events

that i am here in my dressing gown

sitting by the fire when in fact

i am lying undressed in bed

right the idea is that look we have

dreams

at night and it's possible to dream that

you are

sitting by the fire in your dressing

gown when really you're not sitting by

the fire and you're not in your dressing

gown really you're in bed

and you're you're naked undressed

or maybe in your french pajamas or

whatever i don't know okay

the idea is that you know i

could be dreaming

can't trust our senses for sure we can't

be sure that
our senses are giving us guaranteed true

beliefs

about even large and nearby things

because we could be dreaming

and he even points out that we have no

way of telling

that we're dreaming while we're dreaming

so we can't just

check to see if we're dreaming and then

on the basis of that

you know if the test goes right then

just believe all the stuff about large

and nearby things here's what he says

as i think about this more carefully i

see plainly

that there are never any sure signs by

means of which

being awake can be distinguished from

being asleep

there are never any sure signs there's

nothing you can do

while you're dreaming like pinch

yourself or whatever

that would prove that you're either

dreaming or awake or whatever

because here's the thing you could

always just dream that you pinch

yourself

whatever test you might try to run to

determine
that you know oh i'm not dreaming and i

can trust my senses or whatever

you could just dream that you ran that

test so

the fact that it's possible to dream

means that this basic principle is

undermined and now

descartes has doubted away all of the

things he believes based on his senses

like

that he owns a dressing gown and lives

in france all that stuff

that's all gone oh i forgot some things

things that i was gonna mention earlier

in the video

and i just remembered them now so i'm

gonna say them now and maybe i'll edit

the video so that this comes at the

beginning or maybe not i don't know

anyway um that quote that i just read

that comes from page 1819

a t 19. let me just tell you about this

these page numbers uh which i will

occasionally be referring to

right it stands for adam and tannery

those were two french guys in like

1890 something i don't know

they were the editors of a big long

multi-multi-volume book in french

of all of descartes writings

okay so they wrote this book and the

book had page numbers

and modern scholars modern philosophers

when they're talking about descartes

they're all using different translations

and different versions of descartes

writing that were

different publishings and all that sort

of stuff in all these different

languages and they need to know that

they're on the same page

so everyone uses the page numbering from

this

edition this adam and tannery these are

two people

i can't remember their first names

whatever the one guy's name

his last name is adam and the other

one's last name is tannery right

and so they say 1819. that means in the

adam and tannery volume that was

published in whatever year

or it could have been a little later i

think volumes were published over the

course of like a decade or whatever

anyway in that book it's on page 19 in

that book

and so all of the uh well all of the

decent
current translations of descartes work

from

latin all of those they'll note

the 80 page numbers and so occasionally

i will note

the 80 page numbers notice something

we've gone through a lot like a lot's

happened already we're not

done with meditation one yet but

we got descartes plan for the whole all

six meditations we got that

then we got descartes method of doubt

that he's going to use in the first

meditation to doubt away

all of his beliefs all right and then we

got the id

right and that was the idea that he's

going to use basic principles undermine

the basic principles or doubt them and

that's going to

allow him to doubt all the beliefs that

that were based on those basic

principles

so we got the plan for all six

meditations we got the plan for

meditation one and then we've gotten

most of the way through

executing this plan we've already got

two basic principles and the reasons to

doubt those two basic principles

all of this so far has happened in like

eight sentences

so the work is dense and occasionally

when i'm teaching this material in a

regular in-person classroom which is how

most of my teaching occurs

you know and i try to like make chit

chat with the students in the first few

minutes of class before everyone gets

there everyone's coming into the room

and i'll say how was the reading what

did you think of the reading for today

students will often say it was

repetitive

but it's not repetitive actually the

text moves

very fast things change in one sentence

or two sentences he's giving us the plan

for the whole meditations then he's done

with that and he's already moved on to

the next thing

which is explaining the method that he's

going to use in this first meditation so

the pace is actually very quick things

don't repeat they move on to the next

thing

but it seems like they're repetitive the

reason that it seems like they're

repetitive
is that for example descartes will keep

talking about deception

over and over but he's and so it seems

like well it's just the same stuff he

says

deception and deceiving it's all about

deception and deceiving

yes that's right it is all about

deception and deceiving and the

possibility

that you're mistaken or whatever but

he's saying

importantly different things and this is

true of not just of

descartes but of all the philosophy that

we're going to read in this course

right very different things at very

different points and so you're just

going to have to read these texts

with a with an incredible degree of

focus

because if you missed just one sentence

we could have moved on to some very

important next thing

anyway that's just a side note we've now

doubted we've got

two principles on the board and we've

doubted each one of them right so i'm

building a sort of little chart

over here right and this little chart on

this side it has the principles

and then over here it has the reasons to

doubt those principles and thereby doubt

the beliefs that are based on those

principles okay so got the principles

and the doubt

at this point we've doubted away a lot

we've doubted everything that you

believe based on your senses

right so we've doubted uh you know that

you

um i don't know are wearing clothes that

you've

ever worn clothes we're doubting

that you have a family we're doubting

that the

that the continents exist we're doubting

everything because all of that stuff

you only believe those things because

you've even either seen them

or you've seen someone who

told you about them i believe that

the speed of light in a vacuum is 299

million

meters per second yes i believe that

but i believe it because i like listened

to an audiobook or read the wikipedia

entry and all of that

requires my senses so we've doubted

a lot we don't know that we have hands

we don't know that we have clothes we

don't know that

the earth exists we don't know that the

speed of light is 299

million meters per second what do we

have left

what are the beliefs that descartes

hasn't yet doubted

so far at this point a few paragraphs

in to meditation one he then lists some

stuff that he hasn't yet doubted

here's the list

the first thing that he thinks he hasn't

yet doubted this happens by the way

on 1819 he makes this point

is that colors exist colors exist

now he's not saying that any specific

things

have any specific colors he just thinks

that

you couldn't dream that there was some

color that

that didn't exist you could only dream

uh

of a color if there really was such a

color

he thinks okay so he thinks that the

fact that
some colors exist is not something that

one you know well one only discovers

because of one's senses and that and

that dreaming could

uh well could deceive him about then he

thinks

that he still knows that corporeal

corporeal

means coming from the corpse or a body

right corporeal or material stuff

is extended bodily stuff physical stuff

like a human body

or a table or a chair or a mountain or

whatever

that stuff is extended this is going to

be a very

important term in this course extended

means stretched out in space

located and distributed through

space like you know this marker

is extended it's like it extends from

here to here

like it's stretched out and then it

extends from here to here

that's its extension that's what

descartes means by

extension stretched out in space he's

not saying

that he knows about any specific

physical stuff any specific bodies human

bodies

tables chairs or anything he's not even

saying

actually that any physical stuff exists

it's just that if it does exist

it takes up space right and he thinks

that that's just because it's the

definition that's the definition of

corporeal or material stuff this all

happens on

80 20 page 80 20 in the reading

anyway so that's he thinks is true by

definition and so he didn't learn it

through his senses he also thinks

that the truths of arithmetic and

geometry

those truths they are

uh not yet called into doubt

he thinks that we don't learn he's right

about this by the way

we don't learn arithmetic or geometric

truths

we don't demonstrate that they're true

through the senses

now this might seem weird to you like

you might think look

the way that i know or demonstrate

uh or come to believe truths of

arithmetic
like you know one plus

two equals three the way that you came

to know that

is through your senses like you listened

in elementary school or whatever when

the teacher told you that one plus two

equal three and that's how you came to

learn this fact

so why why aren't arithmetic truths

called into doubt by the fact that you

could be dreaming maybe you were

dreaming

back when your teacher said this thing

descartes thinks and he's right by the

way

although that's the way that we sort of

learn about mathematical facts

that's not the way that we support them

that's not the way that we demonstrate

that they're true

we don't demonstrate that they're true

through the senses

this right here this is not

the number three take a look

it's not it's the numeral the the arabic

numeral

three the arabic numeral three which

represents

the number itself right the number three

you've never seen the number three

the number three isn't in space you

can't find it

in like your bedside drawer

or whatever the number three if it

exists at all whatever that means it

doesn't exist in space this is a numeral

this is a bunch of ink

on a board here's another numeral this

is called the roman numeral you may be

familiar with these

from the super bowl or whatever roman

numeral three

arabic numeral three the number three is

a totally different thing

when we figure out facts about the

number three

we figure those facts out not by you

know smelling

a numeral or whatever we figure these

facts out

by just defining what three is in our

minds

and then thinking very very clearly in a

way that does not rely on the senses

thinking very very clearly about the

nature of the number three and the

number of two and one and addition

and whatever right so arithmetic and

geometric truths the same is true for a

triangle like this is not a triangle

this is a drawing of a triangle

triangles don't exist in the world

because they are well

triangles are supposed to be

two-dimensional

enclosed polygons or whatever but this

isn't two-dimensional it's just a bunch

of ink

and the ink has depth to it it's this is

not a triangle anyway

the facts about triangles and the facts

about numbers

triangles and numbers those facts we

discover them not through the senses

or we demonstrate that they're true not

through the senses but by by pure

thought

descartes claims so we've got all of

these beliefs that

still have not been doubted here's what

descartes says next

and yet firmly rooted in my mind is the

long-standing opinion

that there is an omnipotent god who made

me the kind of creature that i am

how do i know that he has not brought it

about that there is no earth no sky

no extended thing no shape no size

no place while at the same time ensuring

that all these things

appear to me to exist just as they do

now

descartes points out that it is possible

for a creature to trick him he thinks

even about all of these things he

doesn't actually go through these

three as clearly as i would have liked

but the thought

is that if there was a creature powerful

enough like god

then that creature could trick descartes

into thinking that colors exist even if

colors don't exist

or that that there's material stuff that

is extended when really there is no

material stuff and nothing is extended

and and that sort of thing and and also

descartes doesn't say this in that

passage but

he also thinks that god could trick him

about arithmetic in geometry

right even though he doesn't come to

believe those things because of his

senses he does come to believe them

because he thinks about them and

and a sufficiently powerful creature

could plant in his mind some incorrect

geometrical
or mathematical thoughts descartes you

know

thinks well god god wouldn't deceive him

but he realizes that it is at least

coherent

to imagine a creature that is as

powerful as god

but is not good and so here's what he

says this is

one of the most famous passages in the

meditations

here he goes i will suppose therefore

that not god who is supremely good and

the source of truth

but rather some malicious demon of the

utmost

power and cunning has employed all of

his energies

in order to deceive me okay let me pause

there actually

the idea is that well we've got this

lingering principle

and that lingering principle is going to

be doubted

by the possibility that there is a

malicious

demon that is as powerful as god but not

as good as god and that's trying to fool

him

so here's the remaining principle that

all of his remaining beliefs are based

on

okay this is the last basic principle

trust the truths of arithmetic geometry

the general nature of corporeal objects

the existence of shapes and colors and

that sort of thing that's just this

stuff

right okay that's the lingering

principle

and he thinks he can doubt this

principle too

and the way that he doubts it is by

considering the fact

that he might be currently under the

deception

of some all-powerful malicious demon

so now he's doubted everything he's even

doubted this stuff

because it's possible that he could be

wrong about all of these things

not because he came to these beliefs

because of his senses but

because he came to these beliefs because

of something about his mind

and that's all stuff that a malicious

demon an all-powerful creature that was

evil

that's all stuff that that sort of

creature could fool him about

and there could be such a creature he

doesn't think that there

is such a creature he's operating under

the assumption

that there's such a creature he's

assuming that there's such a creature

and when you assume that

you get rid of all these beliefs just

like when you assume that you're

dreaming

you get rid of all the beliefs that are

based on your senses like the belief

that you're

you know wearing your dressing gown by

the fire or whatever

i'll just read this last passage it's a

sort of longer passage and i just read

the first sentence but here goes

i will suppose therefore that not god

who is supremely good

and the source of truth but rather some

malicious demon of the utmost power and

cunning

has employed all his energies in order

to deceive me

i shall think that the sky the air the

earth colors

shapes sounds and all external things

are merely delusions of dreams

which he has devised to ensnare my

judgment

i shall consider myself as not having

hands or eyes or flesh or blood or

senses 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

that is

resolutely guard against assenting to

any falsehoods

so that the deceiver however powerful

and cunning he may be

will be unable to impose a impose on me

in the slightest degree he's going to

stop believing all of this stuff

that's where meditation one ends he

stops believing

everything and so if there were a

malicious demon

at least this malicious demon wouldn't

be tricking descartes into believing

in the existence of things that don't

exist

we're at the end of meditation one and

descartes has
wiped out all of his beliefs this is

everything he's got nothing left

what's going to happen at the beginning

of meditation 2

is that descartes is going to find one

belief

one claim that he thinks a malicious

demon

could not trick him about couldn't fool

him about

there's one thing that he thinks he

knows

has got to be 100 guaranteed

certain has to be true there's going to

be one thing at the beginning of

meditation too

and then from that one thing he's going

to try to build up

all of the beliefs that he has now just

doubted away

one last note before we end this video

on meditation one

notice that there are different basic

principles and that

they were doubted on the basis of

different

doubts right so like

his belief in geometry and arithmetic

he didn't undermine those beliefs

because he could be dreaming

no he undermined them because uh there

could be a malicious demon

and the beliefs that his senses are

reliable sources of truths

about large and nearby things that

wasn't doubted based on the malicious

demon or that census can deceive

but that he could be dreaming so make

sure you've got all this straight

right which principles are the

foundations of which beliefs

and then which doubts undermine which

principles

get all this straight i'm definitely

going to put some questions

on the exam about that

you