Insanity's crescendo

“How often has it happened to me that in the night I dreamt that I found myself in this particular place, that I was dressed and seated near the fire, whilst in reality I was lying undressed in bed! At this moment it does indeed seem to me that it is with eyes awake that I am looking at this paper: that this head which I move is not asleep, that it is deliberately and set purpose that I extend my hand and perceive it: what happens in sleep does not appear so clear nor so distinct as does all this. But in thinking this over I remind myself that on many occasions I have in sleep being deceived by similar illusions, and on dwelling carefully on this reflection I see so manifestly that there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep that I am lost in astonishment. And my astonishment is so great that it is almost capable of persuading me that I now dream.” (Rene Descartes, The First Meditation)

Rather reminiscent of master Chuang Tzu's butterfly dream, isn't it?

well, Descartes posed a problem of so called indistinguishability of dreams and waking experiences. he did't actually raise this kind of metaphysical question, i.e. what's the "real" reality. Am I a butterfly who's dreaming to be what I take myself to be, or rather a human being dreaming to be a butterfly. I think the question has a point, in the context in which we consider for example out-of -body-experiences. people actually report to have a feeling that the realm in which the mind is detached from the body seems more real that "normal", waking life.

isn't it basically the same question taken to the extreme? ok, I do agree, the phrasing is as different as the background of the two authors, but other than that...

sad mi ježao da nisam učio njemački u školi