12. Renowned philosopher Rene Descartes gave the glass delusion serious consideration in his meditations
As well as inspiring creative types across Europe, the glass delusion also provided the continent’s philosophers with food for thought. Most notable among these was Rene Descartes. The Frenchman was fascinated by the idea of perception and reality. In his landmark 1641 work Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes used the glass delusion to show that we all perceive the world differently. The book asks the reader to consider the case of an insane man who genuinely believes himself to be made from glass: is his knowledge of the world wrong or simply different to the knowledge of the majority?
