Wednesday, February 5, 2014

A clean sweep of formerly held opinions

Some years ago I came to realize that from my youth onwards I had been accepting as true many opinions that were really false, and that consequently the beliefs which I based upon such infirm grounds must themselves be doubtful and uncertain. Thereupon I became convinced that I need to make, once in my life, a clean sweep of my formerly held opinions and to begin to rebuild from the bottom up, if I wished to establish some kind of firm and assured way of thinking in the sciences. Today then … I shall apply myself earnestly and freely to the task of eradicating all of my formerly held opinions. To this end it will not be necessary to show that the old opinions are false.… Rather, since my reason persuades me that I ought to withhold belief from whatever is not entirely certain and indubitable, quite as much as from what is manifestly false, I shall be sufficiently justified in rejecting any belief if only I can find in each case some reason to doubt it.
~ René Descartes - Meditations

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