What Descartes Got Wrong
Non-Cartesian Meditations "I think therefore I am"? - not quite. After one doubts everything, there is indeed one truth remaining, but "I think therefore I am" ain't it. It is clear that, even if everything is an illusion, nonetheless, this illusion is being perceived. But this proves nothing that about the perceiver, or even that there is one, and not several. To update Descartes' metaphors a bit, we could imagine that everything we're aware of is part of a simulation. To make the metaphors a little too contemporary, we could imagine that everything is part of some kind of virtual reality game. (I'm sure that vocabulary will sound hokey and old fashioned in a few years.) But I want to be very clear, up front, and specify: do I think that the universe is an illusion, and we (or rather I) am merely living in a simulation? No, I do not. I think the universe is real. I do not think I'm in a simulation. All I'm sa...