Meditations on First Philosophy

Main ideas

• Doubt driven to an indubitable starting point in the thinking self.
• God, mind and body argued through six compact meditations.
• The modern problem of external-world knowledge sharpened into canonical form.

Important themes

Reading context

Six days of meditation published in 1641, in which Descartes doubts everything he can in order to find what cannot be doubted. It was circulated with objections from other philosophers and his replies, which is how it was meant to be read.

How to approach it

Meditations 1 and 2 are the famous ones and stand alone. If you go further, read the objections and replies alongside: Gassendi and Hobbes press exactly where the argument is thinnest.