Key Arguments

• He recounts that he had "accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful," so his existing edifice of knowledge is unstable.
• This leads him to be "convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm and abiding superstructure in the sciences," explicitly tying the project to the goal of secure science.
• He delayed the project until he reached "an age so mature as to leave me no hope that at any stage of life more advanced I should be better able to execute my design," indicating its gravity and the need for full intellectual maturity.
• Now that he is "in the secure possession of leisure in a peaceable retirement," he decides "to the general overthrow of all my former opinions," taking up the project in a methodical, deliberate way rather than through casual skepticism.

Source Quotes

OF THE THINGS OF WHICH WE MAY DOUBT. Table of Contents Several years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm and abiding superstructure in the sciences. But as this enterprise appeared to me to be one of great magnitude, I waited until I had attained an age so mature as to leave me no hope that at any stage of life more advanced I should be better able to execute my design.

On this account, I have delayed so long that I should henceforth consider I was doing wrong were I still to consume in deliberation any of the time that now remains for action. To-day, then, since I have opportunely freed my mind from all cares [and am happily disturbed by no passions], and since I am in the secure possession of leisure in a peaceable retirement, I will at length apply myself earnestly and freely to the general overthrow of all my former opinions. But, to this end, it will not be necessary for me to show that the whole of these are false—a point, perhaps, which I shall never reach; but as even now my reason convinces me that I ought not the less carefully to withhold belief from what is not entirely certain and indubitable, than from what is manifestly false, it will be sufficient to justify the rejection of the whole if I shall find in each some ground for doubt.

Key Concepts

• I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful
• I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm and abiding superstructure in the sciences
• I will at length apply myself earnestly and freely to the general overthrow of all my former opinions

Context

Opening paragraphs of Meditation I, where Descartes motivates and announces the radical epistemic project that frames all subsequent meditations.