![]() ![]() The synopsis that follows is helpful, but you might want to read it after having read the work as a whole. ![]() Look for clues to the meditator’s true identity: what kinds of views does she hold, as she begins her reflections? (For confirmation of this, see the last paragraph of his Synopsis of the Six Following Meditations below.) As you read the first The meditator is not Descartes himself, but instead a literary character. Rather than arguing against their views directly, DescartesĬhooses a literary form that allows him to subvert their views-particularly empiricism, existentialism, and their belief in a multitude of natural kinds. ![]() Some key doctrines-that God exists, for example, and that the soul is immortal-they disagree on nearly everything else. Descartes’s target audience here is the scholastics while Descartes and his adversaries agree on Is merely a tool Descartes exploits it is not an independently important or interesting subject.įailure to see this stems from the failure to see the work’s polemical purpose. And Descartes himself refers to the work in correspondence as his ‘metaphysics’. ![]() But remember that the title of the work is Meditations onįirst Philosophy, and ‘first philosophy’ always refers to metaphysics, not epistemology. By the name God I understand a certain infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, supremely intelligent, and supremely powerful substance by which I myself. Descartes is often seen as primarily concerned with epistemology and in particular the The Meditations are among the most frequently misread works of the modern period. Available under Creative Commons-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. ![]()
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