Man I just wanted to know whether it was Hume who said it

In face you make me realize that even science is probably based on trust. The trust that the same causes will lead to the same effects.

Yup indeed, and that little gap is (probably) not measurable, so we can't compare people on who is closer to the truth.

Since we can't have the truth... can we choose our lie?

Well very basically I mean here that you would follow someone else's direction/advice without questioning it, "trusting" that it's good.

What do you mean by "the argument that we have been given"? What is "the ultimate ground of verification" ?

I came to the same conclusion about survival, but I did not consider it an "external" objective, "having been set prior to my own existence".

It is an imposed constant objective by my own nature.

To go back to the idea of an "external" objective, it is asking: "what should I do, were I immortal?"

I feel like once I have achieved the first internal goal of eternal survivance, there is nothing else to use this immortality for.

Yup... And just to double check, Galileo was tried in 1633, one year before the Discourse first publication. So kinda checks out I'd say...

No no, I meant Part 6 of Descartes' Discourse on the Method, which was printed in 1637 apparently (so I guess still Amsterdam).

Thanks for both feedback. If I understand well, you both suggest the books later chapters might not actually reflect what Descartes had in mind?

I find it strange there is so much discussion over Cartesian dualism or the proof of God's Existence if those theories were just a clever(?) censorship coating wrapping the true treasure of this book, which I feel teaches man to doubt the church.

@Mww: I feel like the first paragraph of Part 6 is exactly a reference to Galileo's fate... And as printing, I thought he had printed in very liberal Amsterdam, thus freer than in France?