When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- There is no clear way to distinguish waking life from dreams.
- In plain terms
- It is hard to know if we are awake or dreaming.
- What can you take from it?
- Question the certainty of your perceptions.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you know you are awake?
Another view
Practical life often requires accepting some reality.
More from Rene Descartes
Traveling is almost like talking with those of other centuries.
Permalink to quote #42 When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.
Permalink to quote #44 To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
Permalink to quote #41
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