Summary

Descartes determines to turn away from all thought of the external world and only reflect on his nature. Meditating on what he knows about himself, he reasons that since he knows a few things for certain, he can figure out what it takes for him to know something for certain. Specifically, he says, he perceives all these truths “clearly and distinctly,” and nothing that he has ever perceived this “clearly and distinctly” has ever been false (54). Of course, he thought in the past that he clearly and distinctly perceived an external world. Yet when he really considers it, the only thing that was clear and distinct about this was the experience itself, and he cannot deny that he did have this experience, even if the external world did not exist. Still, there are a couple ideas that Descartes thought he perceived clearly and...