評論
打印
And when we say methodological doubt, well … Descartes believed that everything should be questioned, that is, approach it with doubt
說到懷疑方法論……笛卡兒認為，所有事物都值得質疑，也就是說，帶著懷疑心去接觸事物。
And if you could find one thing that cannot be false, that one thing would serve as a foundation for all other knowledge claims.
假如你能找到絕對真實的事物，這就是所有其它知識主張的基礎了。
So unlike John Locke, Descartes doubts that knowledge comes to him from his senses.
與約翰·洛克不同，笛卡兒對他通過感官獲取的知識感到懷疑。
He points out that at some time or another, everyone has been deceived by their senses.
他指出，總有些時候，大家都被感官欺騙了。
We have all had experiences where our senses have been wrong—illusions, perhaps, mirages.
我們都有感官出錯的經歷——幻覺啦，還有可能是海市蜃樓啦。
When driving in a car on a hot summer day, you may see what looks like shimmering water on the road, which, as science tells us, is really just a mirage, an illusion caused by the heating of the air.
在炎熱的夏天開車時，你可能會看到馬路上有水在發光，但科學告訴我們，這只是海市蜃樓，是空氣加熱引發的幻覺。
Our senses are wrong, they've deceived us.
我們的感官是錯誤的，欺騙了我們。
And Descartes thinks that since our senses can deceive us, we ought not take for granted that what they tell us is really true.
笛卡兒認為，既然我們的感官都能欺騙我們，我們就不應該把感官所得輕易當真。
That's the first step in his methodological doubt.
這是他的懷疑方法論的第一步。
From there he wonders, well, ok, I can doubt my senses, but can I doubt that I am sitting in this room?
基于此，他又思考，我能質疑我的感官，但我能質疑我現在坐在這個房間里這件事嗎？
Can it seem that we are not really here, that we are somewhere else?
有可能我們實際上不在這兒，而是在別的地方嗎？
He conceives that most of us would know that we are sitting in the room.
他認為絕大多數人都知道我們正坐在房間里。
But then he says, well, couldn't I just be dreaming?
接著他說，我不能是在做夢嗎？
He's had dreams that were so real that he thought he was awake when in fact he was actually asleep.
他曾做過很逼真的夢，在夢里他以為他是清醒的，實際上他還在沉睡。
And this is another good point—it's really hard to be sure that you are not actually dreaming.
還有一點很有道理——要知道你到底是不是在做夢是很難的。
Yet another proof for Descartes that we can't always trust what our senses are apparently telling us: we could be dreaming.
笛卡兒的另一條論據，即我們不能總是相信我們的感官，很明顯在告訴我們：我們可以是在做夢。
And there's really no good way to prove that we are not.
沒有很好的辦法能證明我們不在夢中。
So the common sense picture of reality, that the world is really the way it looks to us, Descartes shows that we cannot just assume this to be true beyond all doubt.
人們普遍認為，世界就是我們觀察到的樣子，但笛卡兒表示，我們不能不經質疑就把這當成真理。
And he does this by talking about illusions and also by arguing that we could be dreaming.
他以談論幻覺來證明自己的觀點，聲稱我們也可能正在做夢。
"But consider this," he says, "while one is thinking or doubting, or doing any of those sorts of mental activities, one has to exist, right?"
“但想想這個，”他說，“當一個人在思考、提出質疑，或是在進行思維活動的時候，這個人先要存在，對吧？”
To even think that I doubt that I exist, you have to exist!
要質疑我的存在，首先你要存在！
And so what Descartes has done is find at least one thing that he can be certain of.
所以，笛卡兒的貢獻，就是他至少找出了一樣肯定的事物。
He says, "I exist." And that's a start.
他說，“我存在。”這就是開端。
And other knowledge he tells us can be based on that foundation.
他告訴我們的其它知識都可立足于此。
