Meditations on First Philosophy

Meditations on First Philosophy[1] (subtitled In which the existence of God and

the immortality of the soul are demonstrated) is a philosophical treatise by Ren
Descartes first published in 1641 (in Latin). The French translation (by the Duke of
Luynes with Descartes' supervision) was published in 1647 as Mditations
Mtaphysiques. The original Latin title is Meditationes de prima philosophia, in qua
Dei existentia et anim immortalitas demonstratur. The title may contain a
misreading by the printer, mistaking animae immortalitas for animae immaterialitas,
as suspected already by A. Baillet.[2]

The book is made up of six meditations, in which Descartes first discards all belief
in things that are not absolutely certain, and then tries to establish what can be
known for sure. He wrote the meditations as if he had meditated for six days: each
meditation refers to the last one as "yesterday" (In fact, Descartes began work on the
Meditations in 1639.[3]) One of the most influential philosophical texts ever written,
it is widely read to this day.[4]

The Meditations consist of the presentation of Descartes' metaphysical system in its

most detailed level and in the expanding of Descartes' philosophical system, which
he first introduced in the fourth part of his Discourse on Method (1637). Descartes'
The title page of the Meditations.
metaphysical thought is also found in the Principles of Philosophy(1644), which the
author intended to be a philosophy guidebook.

Contents
1 Letter of Dedication and Preface
2 Summary of Meditations
2.1 Meditation I: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt
2.1.1 Summary
2.1.2 Analysis
2.2 Meditation II: Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind: That the mind is more known than the body
2.3 Meditation III: Concerning God, That He Exists
2.4 Meditation IV: Concerning the True and the False
2.5
Meditation V: Concerning the Essence of Material Things, and Again Concerning God, That He Exists
2.6
Meditation VI: Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and the Real Distinction between Mind and Body
3 Objections and replies
4 Influence and legacy
5 See also
6 Notes and references
6.1 Collected works in French and Latin
6.2 English translations
6.3 Single works
7 Further reading
8 External links
Letter of Dedication and Preface
Letter of dedication

To the most wise and illustrious the Dean and Doctors of the Sacred Faculty of Theology in Paris

Descartes says that he is asking the protection of the Faculty for his work, and to this end he writes the present dedication.

His first consideration is that the existence of God has to be demonstrated philosophically, besides the theological reasons for belief,
particularly if we consider to make a demonstration for the non-believers. Moreover, the believers could be accused of making a
circular reasoning, when saying that we must believe in God because of the Scriptures, and in the authority of the Scriptures because
they have been inspired by God. He further indicates how the very Scriptures say that the mind of man is suf
ficient to discover God.

His aim is to apply a method to demonstrate these two truths, in a so clear and evident manner that result to be evident. This method
he has developed for the Sciences.[5]

Preface to the reader

Descartes explains how he made a mention of the two questions, the existence of God, and the soul, in his Discourse on Method.
Following this, he received objections, and two of them he considers are of importance. The first is how he concludes that the essence
of the soul is a thing that thinks, excluding all other nature. To this he says that he has a clear perception that he is a thinking thing,
and has no other clear perception, and from this he concludes that there is nothing else in the essence of the self.

The second is that from the idea I have of something that is more perfect than myself, it cannot be concluded that it exists. In the
treatise we will see that in fact from the idea that there is something more perfect than myself, it follows that this exists.

It goes on to comment that on a general level the reasoning used by the atheists for denying the existence of God is based in the fact
that "we ascribe to God affections that are human, or we attribute so much strength and wisdom to our minds" that we presume to
understand that which God can and ought to do. He says that we have to consider God as incomprehensible and infinite, and our
minds as limited and finite.

Finally says that the treatise was submitted to some men of learning to know their difficulties and objections, and are answered at the
end of it.[5]

Summary of Meditations

Meditation I: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt

Summary
The First Meditation, subtitled "What can be called into doubt", opens with the Meditator reflecting on the number of falsehoods he
has believed during his life and on the subsequent faultiness of the body of knowledge he has built up from these falsehoods. He has
resolved to sweep away all he thinks he knows and to start again from the foundations, building up his knowledge once more on more
certain grounds. He has seated himself alone, by the fire, free of all worries so that he can demolish his former opinions with care.

The Meditator reasons that he need only find some reason to doubt his present opinions in order to prompt him to seek sturdier
foundations for knowledge. Rather than doubt every one of his opinions individually, he reasons that he might cast them all into
doubt if he can doubt the foundations and basic principles on which the opinions are founded.
Everything that the Meditator has accepted as most true he has come to learn from or through his senses. He acknowledges that
sometimes the senses can deceive, but only with respect to objects that are very small or far away, and that our sensory knowledge on
the whole is quite sturdy. The Meditator acknowledges that insane people might be more deceived, but that he is clearly not one of
them and needn't worry himself about that.

However, the Meditator realizes that he is often convinced when he is dreaming that he is sensingeal
r objects. He feels certain that he
is awake and sitting by the fire, but reflects that often he has dreamed this very sort of thing and been wholly convinced by it. Though
his present sensations may be dream images, he suggests that even dream images are drawn from waking experience, much like
paintings in that respect. Even when a painter creates an imaginary creature, like a mermaid, the composite parts are drawn from real
thingswomen and fish, in the case of a mermaid. And even when a painter creates something entirely new, at least the colors in the
painting are drawn from real experience. Thus, the Meditator concludes, though he can doubt composite things, he cannot doubt the
simple and universal parts from which they are constructed like shape, quantity, size, time, etc. While we can doubt studies based on
composite things, like medicine, astronomy, or physics, he concludes that we cannot doubt studies based on simple things, like
arithmetic and geometry.

On further reflection, the Meditator realizes that even simple things can be doubted. Omnipotent God could make even our
conception of mathematics false. One might argue that God is supremely good and would not lead him to believe falsely all these
things. But by this reasoning we should think that God would not deceive him with regard to anything, and yet this is clearly not true.
If we suppose there is no God, then there is even greater likelihood of being deceived, since our imperfect senses would not have
been created by a perfect being.

The Meditator finds it almost impossible to keep his habitual opinions and assumptions out of his head, try as he might. He resolves
to pretend that these opinions are totally false and imaginary in order to counterbalance his habitual way of thinking. The Meditator
wishes to avoid an excess of skepticism and instead uses a skeptical method, an important distinction. [1]He supposes that not God,
but some evil demon has committed itself to deceiving him so that everything he thinks he knows is false. By doubting everything, he
can at least be sure not to be misled into falsehood by this demon.

Before retiring for the night, the Meditator indulges in his old beliefs, afraid to awake to a life of confusion. As a result he allows for
the tempting falsehoods to continue unabridged.[6]

Analysis
Descartes saw his Meditations as providing the metaphysical underpinning of his new physics. Like Galileo, he sought to overturn
what he saw as two-thousand-year-old prejudices injected into the Western tradition by Aristotle. The Aristotelian thought of
Descartes' day placed a great weight on the testimony of the senses, suggesting that all knowledge comes from the senses. The
Meditator's suggestion that all one's most certain knowledge comes from the senses is meant to appeal directly to the Aristotelian
philosophers who will be reading the Meditations. The motivation, then, behind the First Meditation is to start in a position the
Aristotelian philosophers would agree with and then, subtly, to seduce them away from it. Descartes is aware of how revolutionary
his ideas are, and must pay lip service to the orthodox opinions of the day in order to be heeded.

Reading the First Meditation as an effort to coax Aristotelians away from their customary opinions allows us to read different
interpretations into the different stages of doubt. For instance, there is some debate as to whether Descartes intended his famous
"Dream Argument" to suggest the universal possibility of dreamingthat though there is waking experience, I can never know which
moments are dreams and which are wakingor the possibility of a universal dreamthat my whole life is a dream and that there is
no waking world. If we read Descartes as suggesting the universal possibility of dreaming, we can explain an important distinction
between the Dream Argument and the later "Evil Demon Argument". The latter suggests that all we know is false and that we cannot
trust the senses one bit. The Dream Argument, if meant to suggest the universal possibility of dreaming, suggests only that the senses
are not always and wholly reliable. The Dream Argument questions Aristotelian epistemology, while the Evil Demon Argument does
away with it altogether. The Painter's Analogy, which draws on the Dream Argument, concludes that mathematics and other purely
cerebral studies are far more certain than astronomy or physics, which is an important step away from the Aristotelian reliance on the
senses and toward Cartesian rationalism.
Read on its own, the First Meditation can be seen as presenting skeptical doubts as a subject of study in their own right. Certainly,
skepticism is a much discussed and hotly debated topic in philosophy, even today. Descartes raised the mystifying question of how
we can claim to know with certainty anything about the world around us. The idea is not that these doubts are probable, but that their
possibility can never be entirely ruled out. And if we can never be certain, how can we claim to know anything? Skepticism cuts
straight to the heart of the Western philosophical enterprise and its attempt to provide a certain foundation for our knowledge and
understanding of the world. It can even be pushed so far as to be read as a challenge to our very notion of rationality
.

It is very difficult to justify a dismissal of skepticism. Western philosophy since Descartes has been largely marked and motivated by
an effort to overcome this problem. We should note that Descartes' doubt is a methodological and rational doubt. That is, the
Meditator is not just doubting everything at random, but is providing solid reasons for his doubt at each stage. For instance, he rejects
the possibility that he might be mad, since that would undercut the rationality that motivates his doubt. Descartes is trying to set up
this doubt within a rational framework, and needs to maintain a claim to rationality for his arguments to proceed. He goes on to
suggest more powerful reasons to doubt that his beliefs are true. In general, his method is that of forming skeptical hypotheses
evil demon.[7]
methodic doubt. In the first meditation, he considers whether he is mad, dreaming, or deceived by an

The general form of these arguments is:

1. If I am dreaming/deceived, then my beliefs are unreliable.

Descartes' goal as stated at the beginning of the meditation is to suspend judgment about any belief that is even slightly
doubtful. The skeptical scenarios show that all of the beliefs he considers in the first meditationincluding, at the very least, all his
beliefs about the physical world, are doubtful. So he decides to suspend judgment. He will henceforth give up all of his beliefs about
the physical world. He also decides to continually remind himself to avoid habitually falling into accepting beliefs without support, a
habit to which he is susceptible.

Meditation II: Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind: That the mind is more known
than the body
In Meditation II, Descartes lays out a pattern of thought, sometimes calledrepresentationalism,[8] in response to the doubts forwarded
in Meditation I. He identifies five steps in this theory:

1. We have access to only the world of ourideas; things in the world are accessed only indirectly
.
2. These ideas are understood to include all of the contents of the mind, including perceptions,
images, memories,
concepts, beliefs, intentions, decisions, etc.
3. Ideas and the things they represent are separate from each other .
4. These represented things are many times "external" to themind.
5. It is possible for these ideas to constitute either accurate or false representations.
Descartes argues that this representational theory disconnects the world from the mind, leading to the need for some sort of bridge to
span the separation and provide good reasons to believe that the ideas accurately represent the outside world. The first plank he uses
in constructing this bridge can be found in the following excerpt:

I have convinced myself that there is nothing in the world no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Doesn't it follow
that I don't exist? No, surely I must exist if it's me who is convinced of something. But there is a deceiver, supremely
powerful and cunning whose aim is to see that I am always deceived. But surely I exist, if I am deceived. Let him
deceive me all he can, he will never make it the case that I am nothing while I think that I am something. Thus having
fully weighed every consideration, I must finally conclude that the statement "I am, I exist" must be true whenever I
state it or mentally consider it. (Descartes, Meditation II: On the Nature of the Human Mind, Which Is Better Known
Than the Body).

In other words, one's consciousness implies one's existence. In one of Descartes' replies to objections to the book, he summed this up
in the phrase, "I think therefore I am".[9]
Once he secures his existence, however, Descartes seeks to find out what "I" is. He rejects the typical method, which looks for a
definition (e.g., Rational Animal), because the words used in the definition would then need to be defined. He seeks simple terms that
do not need to be defined in this way, but whose meaning can just be "seen". From these self-evident truths, complex terms can be
built up.

The first of these self-evident truths is Descartes' proof of existence turned on its head:

But what then am I? A thinking thing. And what is that? Something that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills,
refuses, and also senses and has mental images. (Descartes, Meditation II: On the Nature of the Human Mind, Which
Is Better Known Than the Body).

To define himself further, Descartes turns to the example of wax. He determines that wax isn't wax because of its color, texture or
shape, as all of these things can change and the substance still be wax. He believes that wax is perceived "by the intellect alone"
(Meditation II: On the Nature of the Human Mind, Which Is Better Known Than the Body). Therefore, he distinguishes between
ordinary perception and judgment. When one understands the mathematical principles of the substance, such as its expansion under
heat, figure and motion, the knowledge of the wax can beclear and distinct.

If a substance such as wax can be known in this fashion, then the same must be of ourselves. The self, then, is not determined by
what we sense of ourselves these hands, this head, these eyes but by simply the things one thinks. Thus, one "can't grasp
anything more easily or plainly than [his] mind".[10]

Descartes concludes that he exists because he is a "thinking thing". If he is the thing that can be deceived and can think and have
thoughts, then he must exist.

Meditation III: Concerning God, That He Exists

Descartes proposed that there are three types of ideas: Innate, Fictitious, and Adventitious. Innate ideas are and have always been
within us, fictitious or invented ideas come from our imagination, and Adventitious ideas come from experiences of the world. He
argues that the idea of God is Innate and placed in us by God, and he rejected the possibility that the idea of God is Invented or
Adventitious.

Argument 1

1. Something cannot come from nothing.

2. The cause of an idea must have at least as much formal reality as the idea has objective reality .
3. I have in me an idea of God. This idea has infinite objective reality
.
4. I cannot be the cause of this idea, since I am not an infinite and perfect being. I don't have enough formal reality
.
Only an infinite and perfect being could cause such an idea.
5. So God a being with infinite formal reality must exist (and be the source of my idea of God).
6. An absolutely perfect being is a good, benevolent being.
7. So God is benevolent...
8. So God would not deceive me, and would not permit me to err without giving me a way to correct my errors.
Argument 2

1. I exist.
2. My existence must have a cause.
3. The only possible ultimate causes are

a) myself
b) my always having existed
c) my parents
d) something less perfect than God
e) God
 4. Not a. If I had created myself, I would have made myself perfect.
5. Not b. This does not solve the problem. If I am a dependent being, I need to be continually
sustained by another.
6. Not c. This leads to an infinite regress.
7. Not d. The idea of perfection that exists in me cannot have originated from a non-perfect
being.
8. Therefore, e. God exists.

Descartes argued that he had a clear and distinct idea of God. In the same way that the cogito was self-evident, so too is the existence
[11]
of God, as his perfect idea of a perfect being could not have been caused by anything less than a perfect being.

Meditation IV: Concerning the True and the False

The conclusions of the previous Meditations that "I" and "God" both exist lead to another problem: If God is perfectly good and the
source of all that is, how is there room for error or falsehood? Descartes attempts to answer this question in Meditation IV: On Truth
and Falsity.

If I've got everything in me from God and He hasn't given me the ability to make errors, it doesn't seem possible for
me ever to be in error. (Descartes, Meditation IV: On Truth and Falsity).

The framework of his arguments center on theGreat Chain of Being, in which God's perfect goodness is relative to His perfect being.
On the extreme opposite end of the scale is complete nothingness, which is also the most evil state possible. Thus, humans are an
intermediary between these two extremes, being less "real" or "good" than God, but more "real" and "good" than nothingness. Thus,
error (as a part of evil) is not a positive reality, it is only the absence of what is correct. In this way, its existence is allowed within the
context of a perfectly inerrant God.

I find that I am "intermediate" between God and nothingness, between the supreme entity and nonentity. Insofar as I
am the creation of the supreme entity, there's nothing in me to account for my being deceived or led into error, but,
inasmuch as I somehow participate in nothing or nonentity that is, insofar as I am distinct from the supreme entity
itself and lack many things it's not surprising that I go wrong. I thus understand that, in itself, error is a lack, rather
than a real thing dependent on God. Hence, I understand that I can err without God's having given me a special ability
to do so. Rather, I fall into error because my God-given ability to judge the truth is not infinite. (De
scartes, Meditation
IV: On Truth and Falsity).

Descartes also concedes two points that might allow for the possibility of his ability to make errors. First, he notes that it is very
possible that his limited knowledge prevents him from understanding why God chose to create him so he could make mistakes. If he
could see the things that God could see, with a complete and infinite scope, perhaps he would judge his ability to err as the best
option. He uses this point to attack the Aristotelian structure of causes. The final cause described by Aristotle are the "what for" of an
object, but Descartes claims that because he is unable to comprehend completely the mind of God, it is impossible to understand
completely the "why" through science only the "how".

I realize that I shouldn't be surprised at God's doing things that I can't explain. I shouldn't doubt His existence just
because I find that I sometimes can't understand why or how He has made something. I know that my nature is weak
and limited and that God's is limitless, incomprehensible, and infinite, and, from this, I can infer that He can do
innumerable things whose reasons are unknown to me. On this ground alone, I regard the common practice of
explaining things in terms of their purposes to be useless in physics: it would be foolhardy of me to think that I can
discover God's purposes. (Descartes, Meditation IV
: On Truth and Falsity).
Secondly, he considers the possibility that an apparent error at the individual level could be understood within the totality of creation
as error free.

When asking whether God's works are perfect, I ought to look at all of them together, not at one isolation. For
something that seems imperfect when viewed alone might seem completely perfect when regarded as having a place
in the world. Of course, since calling everything into doubt, I haven't established that anything exists besides me and
God. But, when I consider God's immense power, I can't deny that He has made or, in any case, that He could have
made many other things, and I must therefore view myself as having a place in a universe. (Descartes, Meditation
IV: On Truth and Falsity).

Lastly, Meditation IV attributes the source of error to a discrepancy between two divine gifts: understanding and free will.
Understanding is given in an incomplete form, while will (by nature) can only be either completely given or not given at all. When he
is presented with a certain amount of understanding and then chooses to act outside of that, he is in error. Thus, the gifts of God
(understanding and will) both remain good and only the incorrect usage by him remains as error
.

If I suspend judgement when I don't clearly and distinctly grasp what is true, I obviously do right and am not
deceived. But, if I either affirm or deny in a case of this sort, I misuse my freedom of choice. If I affirm what is false,
I clearly err, and, if I stumble onto the truth, I'm still blameworthy since the light of nature reveals that a perception of
the understanding should always precede a decision of the will. In these misuses of freedom of choice lies the
deprivation that accounts for error. And this deprivation, I maintain, lies in the working of the will insofar as it comes
from me not in my God-given ability to will, or even in the will's operation insofar as it derives from Him.
(Descartes, Meditation IV: On Truth and Falsity).[11]

Meditation V: Concerning the Essence of Material Things, and Again Concerning God,
That He Exists
Meditation V: Concerning the Essence of Material Things, and Again Concerning God, That He Exists begins with the stated purpose
of expanding the "known items" of God and self to include outside material objects; but Descartes saves that for Meditation VI in lieu
of something he deems more fundamental but in the same direction: a discussion concerning the ideas of those external items. Along
the way, he advances another logical proof of God's existence.

Before asking whether any such objects exist outside me, I ought to consider the ideas of these objects as they exist in
my thoughts and see which are clear and which confused. (Descartes, Meditation V: On the Essence of Material
Objects and More on God's Existence).

Descartes separates external objects into those that are clear and distinct and those that are confused and obscure. The former group
consists of the ideas of extension, duration and movement. These geometrical ideas cannot be misconstrued or combined in a way
that makes them false. For example, if the idea of a creature with the head of a giraffe, the body of a lion and tail of a beaver was
constructed and the question asked if the creature had a large intestine, the answer would have to be invented. But, no mathematical
re-arrangement of a triangle could allow its three internal angles to sum to anything but 180 degrees. Thus, Descartes perceived that
truths may have a nature or essence of themselves, independent of the thinker. (In Descartes' formulation, this is a mathematical truth
only pragmatically related to nature; theproperties of triangles in Euclidean geometryremain mathematically certain[12] )

I find in myself innumerable ideas of things which, though they may not exist outside me, can't be said to be nothing.
While I have some control over my thoughts of these things, I do not make the things up: they have their own real and
immutable natures. Suppose, for example, that I have a mental image of a triangle. While it may be that no figure of
 this sort does exist or ever has existed outside my thought, the figure has a fixed nature (essence or form), immutable
and eternal, which hasn't been produced by me and isn't dependent of my mind. (Descartes, Meditation V: On the
Essence of Material Objects and More on God's Existence).

While thinking about the independence of these ideas of external objects, Descartes realizes that he is just as certain about God as he
is about these mathematical ideas. He asserts that this is natural as the ideas of God are the only ideas that imply God's existence. He
uses the example of a mountain and a valley. While one cannot picture a mountain without a valley, it's possible that these do not
exist. However, the fact that one cannot conceive of God without existence inherently rules out the
possibility of God's non-existence.
Simply put, the argument is framed as follows:

1. God is defined as an infinitely perfect being.

2. Perfection includes existence.
3. So God exists.
This ontological argument originated in the work of St. Anselm, the medieval Scholastic philosopher and theologian. While
Descartes had already claimed to have confirmed God's existence through previous arguments, this one allows him to put to rest any
discontent he might have had with his "distinct and clear" criteria for truth. With a confirmed existence of God, all doubt that what
one previously thought was real and not a dream can be removed. Having made this realization, Descartes asserts that without this
sure knowledge in the existence of a supreme and perfect being, assurance of any truth is impossible.

Thus I plainly see that the certainty and truth of all my knowledge derives from one thing: my thought of the true
God. Before I knew Him, I couldn't know anything else perfectly. But now I can plainly and certainly know
innumerable things, not only about God and other mental beings, but also about the nature of physical objects, insofar
as it is the subject-matter of pure mathematics.

Descartes, Meditation V: On the Essence of Material Objects and More on God's

Existence)[13]

Meditation VI: Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and the Real Distinction
between Mind and Body
In Meditation VI: Concerning the Existence of Material Things, and the Real Distinction between Mind and Body, Descartes
addresses the potential existence of material outside of the self and God. First, he asserts that such objects can exist simply because
God is able to make them.

Insofar as they are the subject of pure mathematics, I now know at least that they can exist, because I grasp them
clearly and distinctly. For God can undoubtedly make whatever I can grasp in this way, and I never judge that
something is impossible for Him to make unless there would be a contradiction in my grasping the thing distinctly.
(Descartes, Meditation VI: On the Existence of Material Objects from Body).

Knowing that the existence of such objects is possible, Descartes then turns to the prevalence of mental images as proof. To do this,
he draws a distinction between imagination and understandingimagination being a non-linguistic "faculty of knowledge to the
body which is immediately present to it [...] without intellection or conception," which therefore exists like a mental photograph; and
understanding (or apprehending) being something that is not necessarily pictured. He uses an example of this to clarify:

When I have a mental image of a triangle, for example, I don't just understand that it is a figure bounded by three
lines; I also "look at" the lines as though they were present to my mind's eye. And this is what I call having a mental
image. When I want to think of a chiliagon, I understand that it is a figure with a thousand sides as well as I
understand that a triangle is a figure with three, but I can't imagine its sides or "look" at them as though they were
present (...) Thus I observe that a special effort of mind is necessary to the act of imagination, which is not required to
 conceiving or understanding (ad intelligendum); and this special exertion of mind clearly shows the difference
between imagination and pure intellection (imaginatio et intellectio pura). (Descartes, Meditation VI: On the
[14]
Existence of Material Objects and the Real Distinction of Mind from Body).

Descartes has still not given proof that such external objects exist. At this point, he has only shown that their existence could
conveniently explain this mental process. To obtain this proof, he first reviews his premises for the Meditations that the senses
cannot be trusted and what he is taught "by nature" does not have much credence. However, he views these arguments within a new
context; after writing Meditation I, he has proved the existence of himself and of a perfect God. Thus, Descartes jumps quickly to
proofs of the division between the body and mind and that material things exist:

Proof for the body beingdistinct from the mind

1. It is possible for God to create anything I can clearly and distinctly perceive.
2. If God creates something to be independent of another , they are distinct from each other.
3. I clearly and distinctly understand my existence as a thinking thing (which does not require the existence of a body).
4. So God can create a thinking thing independently of a body .
5. I clearly and distinctly understand my body as an extended thing (which does not require a mind).
6. So God can create a body independently of a mind.
7. So my mind is a reality distinct from my body .
8. So I (a thinking thing) can exist without a body.
Proof of the reality of external material things

1. I have a "strong inclination" to believe in the reality of external material things due to my senses.
2. God must have created me with this nature.
3. If independent material things do not exist, God is a deceiver .
4. But God is not a deceiver.
5. So material things exist and contain the properties essential to them.
After using these two arguments to dispel solipsism and skepticism, Descartes seems to have succeeded in defining reality as being in
three parts: God (infinite), minds, and material things (both finite). He closes by addressing natural phenomena that might appear to
challenge his philosophy, such as phantom limbs, dreams, and dropsy.

Objections and replies

Descartes submitted his manuscript to many philosophers, theologians and a logician before publishing the Meditations. Their
objections and his replies (many of which are quite extensive) were included in the first publication of the Meditations. In the Preface
to the Meditations, Descartes asks the reader "not to pass judgment on the Meditations until they have been kind enough to read
through all these objections and my replies to them. Thus, this dialogue could be seen as an integral part of Descartes' views
expressed in the Meditations.

The seven objectors were, in order (of the sets as they were published):

The Dutch theologian Johannes Caterus (Johan de Kater) first set of objections.
Various "theologians and philosophers" gathered by Descartes' friend and principal correspondent,Friar Marin
Mersenne second set of objections
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes third set of objections
The theologian and logician Antoine Arnauld fourth set
[15] )
The philosopher Pierre Gassendi fifth set (Descartes wrote that all of these could be easily dismissed.
Another miscellany gathered by Mersenne sixth set
The Jesuit Pierre Bourdin seventh set of objections
They make many objections to Descartes arguments and method.[16] Some of the objections show that the objector has
misunderstood the text, or wilfully misquoted it, as in the last set of objections by the Jesuit. Descartes response to these is often
dismissive and curt. Other objections are more powerful, and in some cases it is controversial whether Descartes responds to them
successfully (refer to Hobbes' objections). At times Descartes' demeanor suggests that he expected no criticisms would be
forthcoming.[17]

Some of the most powerful objections include the following:

Objections to proof(s) of Gods existence:

A. We have no (clear) idea of an infinite Being (1st, 2nd, and 5th objections).

B. From the fact that I can think of a perfect being, it doesn

t follow that the perfect being exists (1st, 2nd, and 5th).

C. We could get the idea of God without Gods causing the idea (2nd, 3rd).

D. Nothing can cause itself to exist (4th), so God cant cause himself to exist unless God is composed of some essence that in and of
itself has the property of timelessness.

Objections to the epistemology:

A. How can we be sure that what we think is a clear and distinct perception really is clear and distinct (3rd, 5th)?

B. Circle objection 1: if we arent certain that judgments based on clear and distinct ideas are true before we prove Gods existence,
then we cant be certain that we are a thinking thing (2nd). Circle objection 2: if we arent certain that clear and distinct ideas are true
before we prove Gods existence, then we cant be certain that God exists, since we use clear and distinct ideas to prove Gods
existence (4th).

C. Contrary to what Descartes argues, we are certain that bodies exist/that perception coincides with reality (5th, 6th), but we are not
certain that the bodies of our perception are actual bodies in an existent external world.

Objections to philosophy of mind:

A. Ideas are always imagistic (3rd), so we have no idea of thinking substance (non-image idea).

B. We cant conclude that the mind (thinking thing) is not also a corporeal thing, unless we know that we know everything about the
mind. But we dont know that we know everything about the mind. So we dont know that the mind isnt corporeal. (2nd, 4th, 5th,
7th).

Elisabeth of Bohemia also corresponded with Descartes on the Meditations.[18] She objected both to his description of the union
between mind and body, and that virtue and moral truths seem to need to be grasped by something other than the intellect (despite
[19]
Descartes's assertion that all truths must be grasped intellectually).

Influence and legacy

The historical impact of the six meditations has been divided. The first two meditations, which employed the skeptical methodic
doubt and concluded that only the ego and its thoughts are indubitable, have had a huge impact in the history of philosophy.[20] They
are often considered as epoch-making for modernity [20][21]
, and an unavoidable first step for any modern philosophical thinking.

Arthur David Smith, author of theRoutledge Philosophy Guidebook to Husserl, claims that since Edmund Husserl usually refers only
to "the first two" of the Meditations, therefore Husserl must have thought that they are the only part of Descartes' work with any
philosophical importance at all.[20]

See also
17th-century philosophy
Cartesian Meditations
Notes and references
1. J., Cottingham, ed. (April 1996) [1986].Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and
Replies (https://books.google.com/books?id=yMwiTTpwasgC&printsec=frontcover) (revised ed.). Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-55818-1. The original Meditations, translated, in its entirety.
2. Adrien Baillet: La Vie de Mr. Descartes Paris 1692 p. 176. Cf. Theodor Ebert,Immortalitas oder Immaterialitas? Zum
Untertitel von Descartes' Meditationenin: Archiv fr Geschichte der Philosophie 74 (1992) 180-202,
3. Skirry, J. (2008-09-13). "Descartes, Ren: Overview [The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]"
(http://www.iep.utm.
edu/descarte/#H1). www.iep.utm.edu. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
4. Watson, Richard A. (31 March 2012). "Ren Descartes" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-
Descartes). Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online. Encyclopdia Britannica Inc
. Retrieved
31 March 2012.
5. Ren Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy
. Edited Stanley Tweyman. Routledge. 3440. London and New
York. 1993. ISBN 978-0-415-07707-1
6. Perry, Bratman, Fischer, John, Michael, John Martin.Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary
Readings. Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-981299-8.
7. "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Descartes' Epistemology"(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistem
ology/#3.2). plato.stanford.edu. 2005-04-14. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
8. "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Descartes' Epistemology"(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistem
ology/#5.2). plato.stanford.edu. 2010-07-20. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
9. "Ren Descartes French Philosopher and Scientist Quotes"(http://www.egs.edu/library/rene-descartes/quotes/).
Egs.edu. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
10. Descartes original meditation 2 translation(http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/meditation2.html)
11. http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/meditation3.html Descartes original meditation 3 translation
12. Toulmin, S. (August 1996). "Descartes in HisTime". In Weissman, William Theodore Bluhm, D.Discourse on the
method: and, Meditations on first philosophy(https://books.google.com/books?id=bKzKvsbLlAEC&pg=139) .
Rethinking the Western Tradition. Yale University Press. p. 139. "If Euclid is right, it is not the case that we know
nothing permanently and for certain. A natural philosophy grounded in mathematics avoids the traditional objections
to empirical or sensory knowledge: the sixteenth-century skeptics had been premature in despairing of any enduring
systems of theoretical knowledge."
13. "Descartes' Meditations"(http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/meditation5.html). as translated by John Veitch in
1901
14. "Descartes' Meditations"(http://www.wright.edu/cola/descartes/meditation6.html#e2). as translated by John Veitch in
1901
15. "Appendix to Fifth Objections and Replies: Author's note concerning the fifth set of objections".
Meditations,
Objections and Replies. 1647. "I have not been able to discover a single objection which those who have some slight
understanding of my Meditations will not, in my view
, be able to answer quite easily without any help from me.
"
16. "Objections to Descartes Meditations"(http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/GMR/hmp/texts/modern/hobbes/objection
s/objindex.html). Retrieved 2010-06-15.
17. Hobbes objections to Descartes' Meditations with Descartes' replies(http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/GMR/hmp/te
xts/modern/hobbes/objections/objects.html)
18. Shapiro, L., ed. (June 2007).The Correspondence between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and Rene Descartes
.
The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. University Of Chicago Press.ISBN 978-0-226-20442-0.
19. "Introduction" (http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/GMR/hmp/texts/modern/descartes/elizabeth/gmrintro.
html).
www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2010-06-16.
20. Smith, Arthur David (2003)Routledge philosophy guidebook to Husserl and the Cartesian meditations
(https://books.
google.com/books?id=2kw7kRPlGRMC&pg=P A12) pp.123 quotation:

What even more precisely, therefore, is distinctive of Descartes is his 'regression' to the indubitable
ego as the only possible way of combating scepticism. [...] Since, for Husserl, scepticism provided the
goal that led the Greeks to the primal establishment of phylosophy, such a regression to the ego now
emerges for the first time with Descartes as the necessary first step in philosophy. This is the 'ethernal
significance' of Descartes's Meditations. They 'indicate, or attempt to indicate, the necessary style of
the philosophycal beginning'. [...]

In fact, the Cogito is the only thing in Descartes that is, according to Husserl, of any philosophical
significance at all. Almost every time he refers to Descartes'sMeditations in his other writings (e.g.,EP
I, 63; Crisis 76 [75]), it is the first two meditations that he refers to: those that solely concern the
regression to the indubitability of the ego and its 'thoughts' through the offices of methodical doubt.
Descartes's last four meditations do not even get a look in.

21. Husserl (1929) Cartesian Meditations p.4 (https://books.google.com/books?id=jxvDiFFaH9kC&pg=P

A4) quotation:

[...] great weight must be given to the consideration that, in philosophy, the Meditations were epoch-
making in a quite unique sense, and precisely because of their going back to the pure ego cogito.
Descartes, in fact, inaugurates an entirely new kind of philosophy. Changing its total style, philosophy
takes a radical turn: from naive objectivism to transcendental subjectivism.

Collected works in French and Latin

Oeuvres de Descartes edited by Charles Adam andPaul Tannery, Paris: Lopold Cerf, 18971913, 13 volumes;
new revised edition, Paris: Vrin-CNRS, 19641974, 11 volumes (the first 5 volumes contains the correspondence).

English translations
The Philosophical Writings Of Descartes, 3 vols., translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothof
f, and Dugald
Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
The Philosophical Works of Descartes, 2 vols, translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane, and G.R.T
. Ross (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1978).
The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes , translated by John Veitch (1901)

Single works
Meditations on First Philosophy, translated by John Cottingham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Mditations Mtaphysiques, translated to French from Latin by Michelle Beyssade (Paris: GF , 1993), accompanied
by Descartes' original Latin text and the French translation by the Duke of Luynes (1647).

Further reading
Alqui, Ferdinand. La dcouverte mtaphysique de l'homme chez Descartes(Paris: PUF, 2000).
Ariew, Roger & Grene, Marjorie (eds.),Descartes and His Contemporaries. Meditations, Objections and Replies
,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Beyssade, Jean-Marie.La Philosophie premire de Descartes(Paris: Flammarion, 1979).
Cottingham, John. (ed.)The Cambridge Companion to Descartes(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Dicker, Georges. Descartes: An Analytical and Historical Introduction(New York: OUP, 1993)
Frankfurt, Harry. Demons, Dreamers and Madmen(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970).
 Gilson, tienne. Etudes sur le rle de la pense mdivale dans la formation du systme cartsien (Paris: Vrin,
1930).
Gueroult, Martial. Descartes selon L'Ordre des Raisons(Paris: Aubier, 1968). Translated by Roger Ariew as
Descartes' Philosophy Interpreted According to the Order of Reasons(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1984).
Hatfield, Gary. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Descartes and the Meditations(London: Routledge, 2003).
Kenny, Anthony. Descartes: A Study of His Philosophy(Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1968).
Rorty, Amelie. (ed.) Essays on Descartes' Meditations(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).
Williams, Bernard. Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry(London: Penguin Books, 1978).
Wilson, Margaret. Descartes (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978).

External links
Online

The Preface of Meditations on First Philosophy: In Focus lists the various editions ofThe Meditations and their
contents.
(in French) Meditationes de prima philosophia, d. de Amstelodami, ex typographia Blavania, 1685Vicifons)
(
Meditations on First Philosophytr. by Elizabeth S. Haldane.
Contains a version of theMeditations, and of the Objections and Replies, slightly modified for easier reading
free audiobook at librivox.org
Latin Text of 1641; French Translation of 1647; Veitch English Translation
(in French) Mditations touchant la Premire Philosophie dans lesquelles l'Existence de Dieu et la Distinction relle
entre l'Ame et le Corps de l'Homme sont dmontres at athena.unige.ch
(Latin with German foreword and footnotes)Meditationes de prima philosophia, curated by Dr. Artur Buchenau
(Leipzig, C. Grumbach, 1913) from Descartes' 1st (1641) and 2nd (1642) Latin editions and 1647 French translation.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Descartes' Life and Works

Descartes' Modal Metaphysics

Others

Summary of the Meditations

"Philosophy of Psychology and Mind: Descartes and Ryle"
SparkNotes: Meditations on First Philosophy

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