June 26 2008

Text By Meera Sethi

But I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I too do not exist? No. If I imagined myself to be something (or dreamed anything at all) then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me. In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I dream that I am something. So, after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that the proposition, I dream, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my imagination.

(With apologies to Descartes)