Single Idea 3606

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 4. Foundationalism / a. Foundationalism]

Full Idea

My whole plan had for its aim simply to give me assurance, and the rejection of shifting ground and sand in order to find rock or clay.

Gist of Idea

I was searching for reliable rock under the shifting sand

Source

René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §3.29)

Book Reference

Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.50


A Reaction

I take this to be characteristic of an age when religion is being quietly rocked by the revival of ancient scepticism. If he'd settled for fallibilism, our civilization would have gone differently.