Meditations on First Philosophy

by

René Descartes

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Meditations on First Philosophy Characters

René Descartes

René Descartes was the 17th-century French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who wrote Meditations on First Philosophy to explain how science can be based on a set of purely rational principles. Starting from the principle that… read analysis of René Descartes

The Meditator

The Meditator is Descartes’s alter ego and the narrator of Meditations. At the beginning of the book, the Meditator points out that he used to take many beliefs for granted before realizing that… read analysis of The Meditator

God

One of the central issues in Meditations is the existence of God, whom Descartes describes—in line with Catholic doctrine—as the infinite, perfect, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful being who created humans and the universe. Descartes dedicates Meditation… read analysis of God

The Evil Demon

In a famous thought experiment that philosophers have studied closely for centuries, the Meditator sorts his certain beliefs from his uncertain ones by imagining that an evil demon is controlling his mind and planting all… read analysis of The Evil Demon