Meditation 1: Skepticism and the Method of Doubtĭescartes begins by reflecting on the unfortunate fact that he has had many false beliefs. This two-part essay reviews Descartes’ process of reasoning and some of his arguments on these issues.ġ. It raises timeless and fundamental philosophical questions about knowledge, the self, the mind and its relation to the body, substance, causality, perception, ideas, the existence of God, and more. The Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) is a classic work that lays the philosophical foundations of this enterprise. In an era of great debate over the fundamental facts of nature-e.g., about the Earth’s place in the cosmos, the amount of energy in the universe, the circulation of blood in the human body-René Descartes’ (1596-1650) central goal was to establish a body of scientific knowledge that held the same degree of certainty as mathematical truths. Categories: Historical Philosophy, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind and Language, Philosophy of ReligionĮditor’s Note: This essay is the first in a two-part series on Descartes’ Meditations.
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