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Socrates defines the wise man as one who does not imagine knowing what he does not know. The wise man, according to this definition, does not necessarily know anything, but he is necessarily aware of the status of his beliefs. This idea of the wise man deviated radically from the commonly accepted conception of the wise man in ancient times. Instead of a wise man who has access to secret wisdom (a prophet or a poet), Socrates introduces a model of wise man whose virtue is self-awareness. By doing so, he constitutes philosophy as a very personal and skeptical mode of thinking, one that depends on the individual's capability to struggle against his own deluded certainties. Descartes expresses this philosophical legacy at the end of the first meditation in his Meditations:
[...]and if I cannot attain the knowledge of any truth by this method, at any rate it is in my power to suspend my judgment. That way I shall take great care not to accept any falsity among my beliefs and shall prepare my mind well for all the ruses of this great deceiver that, however powerful and artful he may be, he will never be able to mislead me in anything. 1
Descartes is certain that the method he adopts in the Meditations fits his philosophical goal, not because it will necessarily lead him to truth, but because it will enable him to avoid false beliefs (imagining knowing what he does not know). In this respect Descartes is a follower of Socrates, who sees in the struggle against his own false certainties an essential step in the direction of true knowledge. This could explain Descartes' use of the hyperbolic doubt: it is his way of ensuring that his consciousness remains clear of false certainties. The originality of the Meditations lies in Descartes' methodological use of self-deception as a central means for achieving this philosophical goal, which could be defined as avoiding self-deception. That is to say, Descartes uses self-deception in order to exclude the possibility of self-deception. Is it paradoxical?
I believe the answer to this question is negative. Descartes finds that self-deception is a very productive tool in the struggle...