Introduction

In the First Meditation Descartes resolves, 'once in my life', to demolish all the opinions he has ever accepted and begin again from the foundations: the senses deceive us, we may be dreaming, there may even be an all-powerful evil demon bent on deceiving us into believing that two and three make five. Yet in the midst of this universal doubt one thing is certain: so long as I doubt, so long as I think, I exist. From this Archimedean point he proves in six meditations the nature of the mind, the existence of God, the source of truth and falsehood, the essence of material things, and the distinction and union of mind and body. Published with objections by leading scholars of the day and Descartes' replies, it is the true beginning of modern philosophy.