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And when we say methodological doubt, well … Descartes believed that everything should be questioned, that is, approach it with doubt
说到怀疑方法论……笛卡儿认为，所有事物都值得质疑，也就是说，带着怀疑心去接触事物。
And if you could find one thing that cannot be false, that one thing would serve as a foundation for all other knowledge claims.
假如你能找到绝对真实的事物，这就是所有其它知识主张的基础了。
So unlike John Locke, Descartes doubts that knowledge comes to him from his senses.
与约翰·洛克不同，笛卡儿对他通过感官获取的知识感到怀疑。
He points out that at some time or another, everyone has been deceived by their senses.
他指出，总有些时候，大家都被感官欺骗了。
We have all had experiences where our senses have been wrong—illusions, perhaps, mirages.
我们都有感官出错的经历——幻觉啦，还有可能是海市蜃楼啦。
When driving in a car on a hot summer day, you may see what looks like shimmering water on the road, which, as science tells us, is really just a mirage, an illusion caused by the heating of the air.
在炎热的夏天开车时，你可能会看到马路上有水在发光，但科学告诉我们，这只是海市蜃楼，是空气加热引发的幻觉。
Our senses are wrong, they've deceived us.
我们的感官是错误的，欺骗了我们。
And Descartes thinks that since our senses can deceive us, we ought not take for granted that what they tell us is really true.
笛卡儿认为，既然我们的感官都能欺骗我们，我们就不应该把感官所得轻易当真。
That's the first step in his methodological doubt.
这是他的怀疑方法论的第一步。
From there he wonders, well, ok, I can doubt my senses, but can I doubt that I am sitting in this room?
基于此，他又思考，我能质疑我的感官，但我能质疑我现在坐在这个房间里这件事吗？
Can it seem that we are not really here, that we are somewhere else?
有可能我们实际上不在这儿，而是在别的地方吗？
He conceives that most of us would know that we are sitting in the room.
他认为绝大多数人都知道我们正坐在房间里。
But then he says, well, couldn't I just be dreaming?
接着他说，我不能是在做梦吗？
He's had dreams that were so real that he thought he was awake when in fact he was actually asleep.
他曾做过很逼真的梦，在梦里他以为他是清醒的，实际上他还在沉睡。
And this is another good point—it's really hard to be sure that you are not actually dreaming.
还有一点很有道理——要知道你到底是不是在做梦是很难的。
Yet another proof for Descartes that we can't always trust what our senses are apparently telling us: we could be dreaming.
笛卡儿的另一条论据，即我们不能总是相信我们的感官，很明显在告诉我们：我们可以是在做梦。
And there's really no good way to prove that we are not.
没有很好的办法能证明我们不在梦中。
So the common sense picture of reality, that the world is really the way it looks to us, Descartes shows that we cannot just assume this to be true beyond all doubt.
人们普遍认为，世界就是我们观察到的样子，但笛卡儿表示，我们不能不经质疑就把这当成真理。
And he does this by talking about illusions and also by arguing that we could be dreaming.
他以谈论幻觉来证明自己的观点，声称我们也可能正在做梦。
"But consider this," he says, "while one is thinking or doubting, or doing any of those sorts of mental activities, one has to exist, right?"
“但想想这个，”他说，“当一个人在思考、提出质疑，或是在进行思维活动的时候，这个人先要存在，对吧？”
To even think that I doubt that I exist, you have to exist!
要质疑我的存在，首先你要存在！
And so what Descartes has done is find at least one thing that he can be certain of.
所以，笛卡儿的贡献，就是他至少找出了一样肯定的事物。
He says, "I exist." And that's a start.
他说，“我存在。”这就是开端。
And other knowledge he tells us can be based on that foundation.
他告诉我们的其它知识都可立足于此。
