My Body, This Paper, This Fire

On pages 56-59 of Histoire de la folie I said that dreams and madness have neither the same status nor the same role in the development of Cartesian doubt: dreams allow me to doubt this place where I am, this sheet of paper I see, this hand I hold out ; but madness is not an instrument or stage of doubt; for 7 who am thinking cannot be mad'. Madness is therefore excluded, contrary to the sceptical t radi t ion, which made it one of the reasons...