A Beginner's Guide to Descartes's Meditations

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Background.

2. Explanation and Summary of Main Arguments.

Introduction.

Meditation I: About the Things We May Doubt.

Meditation II: Of the Nature of the Human Mind; and that it is Easier to Know than the Body.

Meditation III: Of God; that He Exists.

Meditation IV: Of Truth and Error.

Meditation V: Of the Essence of Material Things; and, Once More of God, that He Exists.

Meditation VI: Of the Existence of Material Things, and of the Real Distinction between the Soul and the Body of Man.

3. Critical Themes.

Introduction.

Objections and Replies.

Certainty and Doubt.

Dualism.

The Existence of God.

Rationalism vs. Empiricism.

Foundationalism and the Cartesian Circle.

Notes.

Appendix A: Overview of the Meditations.

Appendix B: Selected Summaries of Objections and Replies.

Glossary.

Bibliography and Suggested Reading.

Index