Key Arguments

• From his idea of God, he infers that "it is impossible for him ever to deceive me, for in all fraud and deceit there is a certain imperfection."
• He concedes that the ability to deceive might seem a mark of subtlety or power, but insists that the will involved in deception "testifies without doubt of malice and weakness" and so is incompatible with God.
• He is conscious that he possesses "a certain faculty of judging [or discerning truth from error], which I doubtless received from God," and argues that since God cannot will to deceive, he has not given him a faculty that will ever lead him into error, "provided I use it aright."
• The apparent entailment that he can therefore never be deceived is flagged as a problem that motivates the subsequent analysis of the source of error.

Source Quotes

And now I seem to discover a path that will conduct us from the contemplation of the true God, in whom are contained all the treasures of science and wisdom, to the knowledge of the other things in the universe. For, in the first place, I discover that it is impossible for him ever to deceive me, for in all fraud and deceit there is a certain imperfection: and although it may seem that the ability to deceive is a mark of subtlety or power, yet the will testifies without doubt of malice and weakness; and such, accordingly, cannot be found in God. In the next place, I am conscious that I possess a certain faculty of judging [or discerning truth from error], which I doubtless received from God, along with whatever else is mine; and since it is impossible that he should will to deceive me, it is likewise certain that he has not given me a faculty that will ever lead me into error, provided I use it aright.

For, in the first place, I discover that it is impossible for him ever to deceive me, for in all fraud and deceit there is a certain imperfection: and although it may seem that the ability to deceive is a mark of subtlety or power, yet the will testifies without doubt of malice and weakness; and such, accordingly, cannot be found in God. In the next place, I am conscious that I possess a certain faculty of judging [or discerning truth from error], which I doubtless received from God, along with whatever else is mine; and since it is impossible that he should will to deceive me, it is likewise certain that he has not given me a faculty that will ever lead me into error, provided I use it aright. And there would remain no doubt on this head, did it not seem to follow from this, that I can never therefore be deceived; for if all I possess be from God, and if he planted in me no faculty that is deceitful, it seems to follow that I can never fall into error.

Key Concepts

• I discover that it is impossible for him ever to deceive me, for in all fraud and deceit there is a certain imperfection:
• although it may seem that the ability to deceive is a mark of subtlety or power, yet the will testifies without doubt of malice and weakness; and such, accordingly, cannot be found in God.
• I am conscious that I possess a certain faculty of judging [or discerning truth from error], which I doubtless received from God, along with whatever else is mine;
• since it is impossible that he should will to deceive me, it is likewise certain that he has not given me a faculty that will ever lead me into error, provided I use it aright.

Context

Meditation IV, immediately after moving from God’s existence to the project of explaining truth, error, and the reliability of human judgment under a non‑deceiving God.