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May 8 - June 11, 2021
the ancient skeptical principle of epoché, the suspension of judgment, to the essential questions of human life and meaning.
However, although our instruments are faulty, they are “the sole mediators of all knowledge”. We must resign ourselves to empiricism: the senses and reason are not good guides, but they’re all we have.
It’s neither the mad vanity of an esprit-fort, nor the insane desire to shrug off all restraints, that drives me to the researches that I will carry out.
I am neither incredulous nor stubborn, I would be infinitely obliged to anyone who could deliver me from the uncertainty my reflections bring me; I’m annoyed that the sweet illusions with which I once flattered myself in my ignorance are dubious, and that heaven and this happy Eternity have vanished for me!
I see, in spite of myself, the light that upsets me.
The simple advantage of knowing one’s misfortune surpasses that of being happy from ignorance or falsehood.
The Religion I have isn’t of my own choosing, it’s the Religion of the State, of the Country, of the Prince, of my Parents, and not my own.
It’s only by chance when we turn out to be correct: everything is shrouded with a thick veil around which this feeble reason can probe without the strength to pierce it; we never know anything unless it be the difficulties that sometimes show us our mistakes.
For, from a single given certainty or supposition, people immediately construct veritable colossuses of errors, however little free rein reason is granted to turn where it likes.
As fragile and vain as our reason may be, as unfaithful as the senses may be, there are still a thousand obstacles that hide the truth. The passions, one’s temperament, the season, the climate, the sun, rain, health, illness, regulate its judgments; reason is enslaved to everything.
If reason, which is the first foundation of all knowledge, turns out to be uncertain, then what is certain?
I won’t stop using this wretched weapon to help me confound you until you agree that the decision to make no judgement at all is the only rational choice.
I’ll content myself with simple probabilities, since there is no certainty. He who does not know how to doubt, knows nothing at all.
Freed of all childish notions, armed with reason alone, I consider the heavens, the sun, the stars, the sea, the earth, fire.
Shouldn’t I reason about what I do see, and remain ignorant about what I don’t see?
How can nothingness be comprehended?
The power of this habit is so immense and so imperious that it takes all the effort of reflection, I won’t say to shake off the yoke completely, which I don’t consider possible, but even to escape one’s continual subjection to it.
Why not rather say, “Be ignorant about what you’re ignorant about, think nothing of it, make no decision, leave it be, however it might be”.
It seems that a bee, if touched even a little by human pride, could say the following: “The whole universe was made for me; the fields are for my use only, the flowers, the fruits, the streams are all mine.
And what distance is there between bees and us, or between us and elephants or whales?
We abhor whatever we see abhorred, we find lovely whatever we’re told is lovely; we flee, we hate, we affirm, we praise, we admire, we laugh, we cry, we fear in company, and only because of our subjection to the common judgments, which determine our indifference.
Good, evil, vice and virtue, shame and glory are only what we’re told is good or evil, vice or virtue;
Therefore, virtue or honor, good or evil, glory and infamy are only opinions: all these words are nothing but human judgment, each individual fearing the blame he is able to avoid; all men's vice really exist only in their imagination, which disposes thereof at will and covers whatever it wants with the terms good and evil.
The unalterable pleasure in the purity of animal nature undergoes the impressions of this public opinion, which corrupts our own and corrupts our senses.
For, free will is just another imaginary term. This fantastic choice, a privilege with which we’re adorned, is only a figment, invented by reason to render us worthy of torments or rewards, or rather to give a hue of justice to the penalties which have been assigned to infractions against the common treaty.
When you think about it, however weak may be the foundation of a common, but universal opinion, how quickly the people embrace a brilliant error!
How many pagans have worked similar miracles? Didn’t they predict the future like the prophets?
it’s enough for something to have passed from mouth to mouth to suspect it is simply corrupt: retelling is a very strong proof of falseness.
it’s a hat which is measured precisely to my head without its maker having me in mind when he made it;
Finally, as I’ve already said, isn’t everything that is handled by men, everything coming by their testimony sullied, false, and altered?
Study often gives them a thirst for what they are learning, like a lawyer who, although he initially found his case dubious, sees what he will gain and how he can win, ultimately lets his judgment be corrupted and, by seeking to persuade others, ends up convincing himself of the soundness of his arguments.
I would rather be in a state of suspension than in error:
The soundness of my doubt consists in doubting even my doubts, in being suspended and fragile in my suspension, and my suspension will be the party with truth on its side: it is only a simple inclination and a naked desire for the unknown truth.
For, my suspension is not a dead suspension, it is alive and ardent and desirous of the truth;
it doesn't depend on me to believe what I want; I can’t command my conviction, and I would rebel against myself if I tried to force the issue;
Finally, I neither can nor should believe a useful opinion.
Ultimately, judgment and love are free, are not to be chained, imprisoned, taken captive. I can do only what I can do.
If someone says I’m abandoning nature, which I’ve intended to follow, I will consult the animals our brothers. I will act differently when the senses give me no certainty of the peril I was afraid of. Why not be entirely ignorant of things about which the senses are silent, and why not act as if they weren’t real, as if they had never reached our ears?
I will see the vices of men with the same indifference as the impulses of animals;
The animals, from whom we should learn, teach us that it isn’t all that terrible, and they die more easily than us.
we should annihilate all fear so that we feel only as animals do, the pain which makes itself felt.
This is how reflection will lead me back to the ways of nature, from which reason had led me astray, and how I will become truly animal, by the effort of reason.
