Descartes- Meditations- An Explication
Submitted by on January 1, 1999
Category: Philosophy
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Descartes overall objective in the Meditations is to question knowledge. To explore such metaphysical issues as the existence of God and
the separation of mind and body, it was important for him to distinguish what we can know as truth. He believed that reason as opposed
to experience was the source for discovering what is of absolute certainty. In my explication, I will examine meditation two in order to
discover why knowledge was so important to Descartes.
Meditation One
The first meditation acts as a foundation for all those that follow. Here Descartes discerns between mere opinion and strict absolute
certainty. To make this consideration he establishes that he must first “attack those principles which supported everything I once
believed.”(quote, paraphrase) He first examines those beliefs...