Meditations on First Philosophy

⚖The case for it

The proofs in the middle meditations convinced few readers in 1641 and convince fewer now. What lasts is the form: sixty-odd pages, first person, present tense, a book that sits you in the chair and makes you do the work yourself. The wax softening by the fire, the dream you cannot rule out, the deceiver who may be arranging everything you see. Get the edition with the Objections and Replies, where Hobbes and Arnauld come at the book hard and Descartes has to answer them in print, which is a nerve almost no philosopher has shown since. You put it down warier about what you take on trust.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Doubt gets all the fame; the rebuilding is where it wobbles. Descartes needs God to guarantee clear and distinct ideas, and clear and distinct ideas to prove God, a circle his contemporaries spotted immediately and he never escaped. Accept the famous demolition in Meditation One and you're stuck living in the rickety structure the other five erect on it.

— the honest librarian