And not
only in those founded on the external senses, but even in
those founded on the internal as well; for is there anything
more intimate or more internal than pain? And yet I have
learned from some persons whose arms or legs have been cut
off, that they sometimes seemed to feel pain in the part which
had been amputated, which made me think that I could not be
quite certain that it was a certain member which pained me,
even although I felt pain in it. And to those grounds of
doubt I have lately added two others, which are very general;
the first is that I never have believed myself to feel
anything in waking moments which I cannot also sometimes
believe myself to feel when I sleep, and as I do not think
that these things which I seem to feel in sleep, proceed from
objects outside of me, I do not see any reason why I should
have this belief regarding objects which I seem to perceive
while awake. The other was that being still ignorant, or
rather supposing myself to be ignorant, of the author of my
being, I saw nothing to prevent me from having been so
constituted by nature that I might be deceived even in matters
which seemed to me to be most certain.
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