A Discourse on Method and Meditations

by Descartes, Rene

• ISBN13: 9780879755263
• ISBN10: 0879755261
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-02-01
• Publisher: Prometheus

Summary

Is knowledge possible? If so, what can we know and how do we come to know it? What degree of certainty does our knowledge enjoy? In these two powerful works, Descartes, the seventeenth-century philosopher considered to be the father of modern philosophy, outlines his philosophical method and then counters the skeptics of his time by insisting that certain knowledge can be had. He goes on to address the nature and extent of human knowledge, the distinction between mind and body, the existence of God, and the existence of external objects.

Table of Contents

DISCOURSE ON METHOD
Author's Prefatory Note	10	(1)
Part One	11	(6)
Part Two	17	(7)
Part Three	24	(6)
Part Four	30	(6)
Part Five	36	(11)
Part Six	47	(26)
MEDITATIONS ON THE FIRST PHILOSOPHY
Dedication	61	(4)
Preface to the Reader	65	(3)
Synopsis of the Meditations	68	(5)
Of the Things of Which We May Doubt	73	(5)
Of the Nature of the Human Mind; and that It Is More Easily Known than the Body	78	(8)
Of God: That He Exists	86	(12)
Of Truth and Error	98	(7)
Of the Essence of Material Things; and, Again, of God; That He Exists	105	(6)
Of the Existence of Material Things; and of the Real Distinction between the Mind and Body of Man	111