Medititations - pg. xxiii

Freedom, mastery -- I should like to stress the importance of these concepts in the philosophy of Descartes. The fact of freedom is at the very basis of Cartesian thinking. Philosophy indeed is an exercise in freedom: and freedom alone makes it possible. It is only by a free act to our mind that we can decide to doubt, 'to suspend judgment', to 'withdraw the acceptance' of all the ideas that customarily present themselves to us. Our decision to review all our ideas in the light of a searching criticism was indeed a free decision; therefore our decision to say no to ourselves and to our own nature was similarly a free decision, as was also our decision to set ourselves -- and our reasoning faculty -- the task of re-ordering all our mental activities on a new plan.