Volume 22, 2018
Metaphilosophy
Shai Frogel
Pages 25-28
Descartes: Searching for Truth by Self-deception
The paper examines the role of self-deception in Descartes’ Meditations. It claims that although Descartes sees self-deception as the origin of our false judgments, he consciously uses it for his searching for truth. Descartes finds that self-deception is a very productive tool in our searching for truth, since it expands our ability to free ourselves from our actual certainties; logical thinking enables us to doubt our certainties but only self-deception enables us to really suspend them. Although it might sound wrong or even absurd to employ self-deception for the purpose of searching for truth, one should examine Descartes’ strategy carefully. After all, this strategy leads him to great philosophical insights.