笛卡兒名言有很多,他在《沉思錄》提出惡魔論證,有1個惡魔把我給欺騙了,全世界都是幻覺,本文提供第一卷原文及中譯摘要,帶你瞭解此哲學論證。
目錄
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一、關於可懷疑之事
笛卡兒在年輕時接受了許多觀念,後來發現其中不少並不可靠。既然這些觀念成為他思考體系的基礎,要建立穩固而真確的知識,就必須從根本重新檢驗所有信念,並清除一切可懷疑的部分。
他採取的方式是「方法懷疑」——不是否定真理,而是暫時懷疑一切,以便找出無法被懷疑的那個起點。為此,他從最直接的認知開始懷疑:感官。感官經常欺騙我們,例如遠處的東西看似小、直的棍子放入水中似乎彎曲。因此,任何僅依賴感官得出的結論都不應完全相信。
接著,他進一步懷疑,即使在看似清醒的狀態,我們也可能在做夢。夢境中的經驗與現實極其相似,使人難以區分自己究竟醒著還是睡著。那麼,是否連眼前的一切都可能是幻覺?
然後,笛卡兒又思考,即使感官是假的,數學與邏輯這些看似絕對的真理是否仍可靠?他假設有一個全能而欺騙人的存在——或稱「惡魔」——能讓我們在最清楚的推理中也出錯。若如此,連「二加三等於五」都可能是虛假。
雖然這樣的懷疑極端而痛苦,但笛卡兒認為,唯有徹底推翻一切可疑的信念,心靈才能重新建構真正確定的知識基礎。他決心暫時把一切當作虛假,讓理性從零開始。
在這種徹底懷疑的狀態中,他感受到內心的掙扎與惰性,心智總想回到舊觀念的安穩。然而,為了尋找不容懷疑的真理,他必須強迫自己保持清醒,像從夢中掙脫出來一樣,走向真正的認識之光。
二、哲學思辯架構
在此整理笛卡兒在《沉思錄》哲學思辯架構
- 反省過往信念
- 笛卡兒回顧自己年輕時承認許多「假為真」的東西。
- 如果要建立真正「堅固」的科學,必須有一次徹底清算過去意見,從「第一原則」開始。
- 方法懷疑的第一步:感官不可靠
- 感官曾經欺騙過我們,謹慎的人不該完全信任它。
- 即使眼前感覺「確定」,也有夢境和瘋人妄想的例子提醒我們:清醒時與夢中經驗難以分辨。
- 更深的懷疑:數學也可被欺騙
- 即使算術、幾何這些看似不可懷疑的東西,也可能因為一個「全能的創造者」或「惡意的欺騙者」而被我們誤判。
- 因此連最簡單的真理也須暫時懷疑。
- 方法懷疑的實踐
- 必須刻意把一切都當成「暫時的虛假」,讓心智擺脫舊習慣。
- 假設有一個「惡意而強大的欺騙者」在欺騙我:天地、顏色、聲音、身體都是幻象。
- 這樣做的目的不是為了實際行動,而是純粹的「思辨」──以便日後找出真正無可懷疑的基礎。
- 心理掙扎
- 這是一個艱辛的過程,心智會懶散地想回到舊觀念,就像囚犯在夢裡感到自由卻不願醒來。
- 但唯有經過這種徹底的「方法懷疑」,才有可能找到真正清晰、明證的真理。
三、笛卡兒名言摘錄
Of Things Doubtful
第一沉思錄:關於可懷疑之事
Some years ago, I realized how many falsehoods I had accepted as truths in my youth, and how doubtful were the foundations I had built upon them.
幾年前,我意識到自己年輕時曾把許多「虛假」當作「真理」接受,而那些建立在其上的信念,其實都極為可疑。
First Doubt
第一次懷疑
For instance, that I am here, sitting by the fire, wearing a winter gown, holding this paper in my hands—how could I deny that these hands or this body are mine?
例如:我現在坐在火爐邊,身穿冬衣,手中拿著紙張,怎能否認這雙手或這具身體屬於我呢?
Second Doubt
第二次懷疑
Let us then suppose that we are asleep, and that all these things—opening our eyes, moving our heads, stretching out our hands—are false; perhaps we have no hands or body at all.
那麼,不妨假設我們正在睡夢之中,所有這些——睜眼、轉頭、伸手——全是虛假的;甚至或許我們根本沒有手與身體。
Third Doubt
第三次懷疑
To this end, I will suppose that not an infinitely good God, but some evil demon, supremely powerful and cunning, has employed all his energies to deceive me.
為此,我將假設世界的主宰並非良善的上帝,而是一個「極其強大狡詐的惡魔」,竭力欺騙我。
四、第一沉思錄原文
以下是《第一沉思錄:關於可懷疑之事》的現代英文+繁體中文對照版。
Meditation I
Of Things Doubtful
第一沉思錄:關於可懷疑之事
Some years ago, I realized how many falsehoods I had accepted as truths in my youth, and how doubtful were the foundations I had built upon them.
幾年前,我意識到自己年輕時曾把許多「虛假」當作「真理」接受,而那些建立在其上的信念,其實都極為可疑。
Therefore, I thought it necessary—if I ever wished to establish anything firm and lasting in the sciences—to once in my life completely cast aside all my former opinions and begin anew from some first principles.
因此,我認為若想在學問上建立起「堅固而持久」的基礎,就必須有一次,徹底拋開以往的一切觀點,從「第一原則」重新開始。
Yet this seemed a great task, and I kept waiting for that maturity of age most suitable for learning.
但這似乎是一項艱鉅的任務,我一直等待那個最適合學習的年齡與心智成熟時機。
I delayed so long that I would now be rightly blamed if I spent what remains of my life in deliberation instead of action.
然而我拖延太久,若繼續浪費生命於「思考」而非「行動」,確實該受責備。
Thus, today I have freed my mind from all cares, secured for myself a period of quiet leisure, and retired alone.
於是今天,我讓心靈從一切掛慮中解放,找出一段安靜閒適的時光,獨自退隱。
Now at last I will apply myself earnestly and freely to the general destruction of all my former opinions.
現在,我終於要認真而自由地著手摧毀自己以往所有的信念。
The First Step of Doubt
第一步的懷疑
Whatever I have accepted as most true, I have learned either from or through the senses; yet I have often found the senses to deceive, and it is prudent never to trust those who have once deceived us.
我過去所認為最真實的一切,都是從感官得來;然而感官曾多次欺騙我,而謹慎之道,就是永不完全信任曾欺騙過我們的東西。
First Doubt
第一次懷疑
Although the senses sometimes deceive us regarding distant or tiny objects, are there not many things of which we cannot doubt, even though we know them through the senses?
雖然感官在面對遙遠或細微的事物時會欺騙我們,但難道沒有一些事,即使由感官得知,也無法懷疑嗎?
For instance, that I am here, sitting by the fire, wearing a winter gown, holding this paper in my hands—how could I deny that these hands or this body are mine?
例如:我現在坐在火爐邊,身穿冬衣,手中拿著紙張,怎能否認這雙手或這具身體屬於我呢?
First Solution
第一次解答
This would indeed seem clear—if I were not reminded that I too have dreamed the very same things.
這的確看似明白——若不是我記得自己在夢中也曾如此。
In dreams, I have thought I was here, dressed, sitting by the fire, while in fact I lay undressed between the sheets.
在夢裡,我也以為自己坐在火爐旁,穿著衣服,但其實我只是赤身躺在被窩中。
Reflecting on this, I am so astonished by the difficulty of distinguishing sleep from wakefulness that I am almost persuaded I am now asleep myself.
當我仔細思索時,竟對「夢與醒」難以區分這件事感到震驚,幾乎懷疑自己此刻也在夢中。
Second Doubt
第二次懷疑
Let us then suppose that we are asleep, and that all these things—opening our eyes, moving our heads, stretching out our hands—are false; perhaps we have no hands or body at all.
那麼,不妨假設我們正在睡夢之中,所有這些——睜眼、轉頭、伸手——全是虛假的;甚至或許我們根本沒有手與身體。
Yet we must at least admit that the things we see in dreams are like painted pictures, which could not be formed except after the likeness of real things.
然而,我們至少得承認:夢中的景象如同畫像,它必然源自真實事物的某種「相似」。
Painters, even when they invent the most fantastic creatures, combine parts of real animals; though what they imagine may be wholly fictitious, the colors they use are real.
畫家即使描繪最奇幻的生物,也只是將真實動物的部位拼合起來;即便畫面是虛構的,色彩本身卻是真實的。
In the same way, even if eyes, hands, and the body are imaginary, we must still acknowledge that simple and universal things are real—such as the nature of body in general, its extension, shape, quantity, number, place, and time.
同理,即使眼睛、手與身體都是虛構的,我們仍必須承認,有些「簡單而普遍」的東西是真實存在的——例如「物體」的一般性質:延展、形狀、大小、數量、位置與時間。
Hence, while physics and astronomy, which deal with complex things, are doubtful, arithmetic and geometry, which concern only the most simple and general notions, contain something certain and indubitable.
因此,探討複雜事物的物理學與天文學或許可疑,但研究「單純與普遍概念」的算術與幾何,卻含有某種確定且不可懷疑的真理。
For whether I sleep or wake, two and three make five, and a square has four sides—it seems impossible to doubt such plain truths.
無論我醒著或睡著,二加三總是五,正方形總有四邊——如此明白的真理,似乎不容懷疑。
Second Solution
第二次解答
Yet there remains in my mind a belief in an omnipotent God who created me as I am. But how do I know he has not caused there to be no earth, no sky, no bodies, and yet made all these things appear exactly as they do?
然而,我心中仍存在著對一位「全能的上帝」的信念——祂照現有的樣子創造了我。但我怎能確定祂沒有讓天地萬物根本不存在,卻使它們在我眼中宛如真實?
And if he can do this, how do I know that he does not deceive me whenever I add two and three or count the sides of a square?
若祂能如此行,我又怎能確定祂沒有在我加二與三、或數正方形邊數時欺騙我?
Third Doubt
第三次懷疑
Perhaps God would not will to deceive me, for he is said to be infinitely good.
也許上帝不會願意欺騙我,因為祂被稱為「無限良善」。
Third Solution
第三次解答
But if it would be contrary to his goodness to make me always deceived, it would also seem inconsistent with his goodness to allow me to be deceived even sometimes—which no one denies happens.
然而,若說「讓我永遠受騙」違反祂的良善,那麼「允許我偶爾受騙」也同樣不符良善——而這件事顯然經常發生。
Even if there is no God, and I am the product of fate or chance, since error is an imperfection, the less powerful the author of my being, the more likely I am to be always deceived.
即使沒有上帝,而我是命運或偶然的產物,既然「錯誤」是一種「不完美」,那麼造就我的存在越不完美,我就越可能永遠被欺騙。
Thus I can find no certain answer, and must confess that there is nothing among all my former beliefs that I cannot doubt.
因此,我無法找到任何確定的答案,必須承認:我以往所有的信念中,沒有一項是不可懷疑的。
Therefore, if I wish to discover any truth, I must suspend my judgment regarding all these as carefully as if they were false.
所以,若我真想找到真理,就必須暫時將它們全部視為「虛假」,以免輕率地相信錯誤。
To this end, I will suppose that not an infinitely good God, but some evil demon, supremely powerful and cunning, has employed all his energies to deceive me.
為此,我將假設世界的主宰並非良善的上帝,而是一個「極其強大狡詐的惡魔」,竭力欺騙我。
I will imagine that the heavens, the air, the earth, colors, sounds, and all external things are nothing but illusions and dreams, by which he ensnares my credulous mind.
我將設想:天、地、空氣、色彩、聲音與一切外在事物,不過是惡魔設下的幻象與夢境,用以陷我輕信之心。
I will persist in this meditation, and though I may never discover any truth, it is in my power at least to withhold assent to falsehoods.
我將堅持此種冥想;即使無法發現真理,至少我能保有拒絕「虛假信念」的力量。
Yet this is a laborious effort, and a certain laziness leads me back to my ordinary ways of thinking, like a prisoner who, dreaming of liberty, fears to awaken and lose his pleasant delusion.
然而,這是一項艱苦的努力,而懶惰使我回到舊有的思考習慣,就像一個夢見自由的囚徒,害怕醒來失去美好的幻覺。
So I willingly fall back into my old opinions, fearing that after this painful awakening I may no longer live in the light of truth, but in the dark confusion of doubt I have myself raised.
於是我情願回到從前的信念之中,因為我害怕這場痛苦的覺醒,將使我從光明的真理世界,墜入自己製造的懷疑黑暗。
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西遊記線上看、封神演義線上看、白蛇傳小說線上看、妙法蓮華經功效。
