For if I
say, I see, or, I walk, therefore I am; and if I understand by
vision or walking the act of my eyes or of my limbs, which is the
work of the body, the conclusion is not absolutely certain, because,
as is often the case in dreams, I may think that I see or walk,
although I do not open my eyes or move from my place, and even,
perhaps, although I have no body: but, if I mean the sensation
itself, or consciousness of seeing or walking, the knowledge is
manifestly certain, because it is then referred to the mind, which
alone perceives or is conscious that it sees or walks. [Footnote: In
the French, "which alone has the power of perceiving, or of being
conscious in any other way whatever."]
X. That the notions which are simplest and self-evident, are
obscured by logical definitions; and that such are not to be
reckoned among the cognitions acquired by study, [but as born with
us].
I do not here explain several other terms which I have used, or
design to use in the sequel, because their meaning seems to me
sufficiently self-evident. And I frequently remarked that
philosophers erred in attempting to explain, by logical definitions,
such truths as are most simple and self-evident; for they thus only
rendered them more obscure.
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