How to Read Meditations on First Philosophy: Themes, Structure and Questions to Ask

What is Meditations on First Philosophy, and why is it still read?

René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher and mathematician who spent most of his working life in the Dutch Republic. He published the Meditations in Latin in Paris in 1641, followed by a second edition in Amsterdam in 1642 and a French translation in 1647. It is a treatise written in the first person: a narrator sits alone, sets out to tear down everything he believes, and rebuilds knowledge on a foundation he cannot doubt. Descartes dedicated it to the Faculty of Theology in Paris and asked for its approval.

It is still read because it poses problems philosophy has not finished arguing about. How can you know anything if your senses sometimes mislead you? Is anything beyond doubt? How does a thinking mind relate to a physical body? Thought experiments about being a brain in a vat or living inside a simulation descend from the First Meditation's deceiving demon, and the mind-body problem starts here. And it is short enough to follow whole in a week.

How the six meditations are structured

The book opens with the dedicatory letter, a Preface to the Reader and a Synopsis, Descartes' own summary of each meditation; read the Synopsis first. Then come the six meditations, which the narrator presents as consecutive days of reflection: the Second opens by recalling the doubts of the day before. After them come the Objections and Replies, criticisms collected from other thinkers, largely through Descartes' friend Marin Mersenne, each followed by his answer. The 1642 edition contains seven sets.

Main themes in Meditations on First Philosophy

Five themes run through all six meditations. For each, know the passage that shows it: essays on the Meditations are judged on how precisely you locate an argument.

Key ideas and arguments to know

Seven arguments carry the book; learn each well enough to state its premises in order. Two objections belong with them: Antoine Arnauld's Cartesian circle in the Fourth Objections, and Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia's question, in letters of 1643, about how an unextended mind can move an extended body.

• The dream argument: there are no sure signs for telling waking from dreaming, so sense experience cannot by itself prove an outside world.
• The malicious demon: a powerful deceiver imagined so the narrator can doubt even what seems obvious.
• "I am, I exist": true each time it is thought, because even being deceived requires someone who exists.
• The wax argument: melting beeswax loses its smell, color, shape and hardness, yet is judged the same wax, so the mind grasps it by understanding rather than sensation.
• The trademark argument (Third Meditation): the idea of an infinite being has more reality than a finite mind could produce, so God placed it there, like a craftsman's mark on his work.
• The ontological argument (Fifth Meditation): existence belongs to the essence of a supremely perfect being as necessarily as its angle sum belongs to a triangle.
• The real distinction (Sixth Meditation): what you can clearly conceive apart, God can create apart; mind and body can be conceived apart, so they are distinct substances.

How to read the Meditations: a seven-day plan

Treat the book the way the narrator does: one meditation per sitting, with time between them. If dense argument is new to you, our guide on how to read philosophy without giving up explains how to map premises and conclusions, and the guide to annotating a book shows how to mark a text so you can find an argument again.

1. 1Day 1: Read the Preface and the Synopsis. Write one line per meditation saying what Descartes promises it will do.
2. 2Day 2: Read the First Meditation and list the stages of doubt in order (senses, dreaming, deceiver), noting what each knocks out.
3. 3Day 3: Read the Second Meditation. Write the "I am, I exist" argument as numbered premises, then restate the wax example in your own words.
4. 4Day 4: Read the Third Meditation twice. It is the hardest; copy out the definitions of formal and objective reality and keep them beside you.
5. 5Day 5: Read the Fourth and Fifth Meditations together and note how each depends on the God proved in the Third.
6. 6Day 6: Read the Sixth Meditation and check which doubts from the First it answers, and which it leaves standing.
7. 7Day 7: Read one set of Objections and Replies (Arnauld's are a good choice) and decide whether Descartes' reply works.

Questions to ask about Meditations on First Philosophy

Use these for seminar preparation or a self-test after each meditation. A good answer names the passage it relies on.

• Does the dream argument show that you might be dreaming now, or only that you cannot prove you are not?
• Why does Descartes need the malicious demon when he already has the dream argument?
• What exactly does "I am, I exist" prove: that some thinking exists, or that a particular person exists?
• Is Descartes right that the senses contribute nothing to knowing what the wax is?
• Could a finite mind build the idea of infinity by negating limits?
• Does the Cartesian circle break the argument, or can Descartes escape it?
• If error comes from the will, is it always your own fault when you are wrong?
• Does the ontological argument move illegitimately from a concept to a fact about reality?
• Does being able to conceive your mind without your body prove they are separate?
• How can an unextended mind cause an extended arm to move?

Which edition or translation to choose

Descartes wrote the Meditations in Latin. The 1647 French translation by the Duc de Luynes was made with his approval and differs from the Latin in places, sometimes adding clarifications. A good English translation says which text it follows and flags important French additions.

For study, pick an edition that prints the Adam and Tannery page numbers in the margin; scholars cite by these, and the Latin Meditations are in volume VII. John Cottingham's translation from Cambridge University Press does this and is widely assigned; Donald Cress's translation for Hackett is another common choice, and the older Haldane and Ross translation is easy to find free. Prefer an edition with at least some of the Objections and Replies.