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Home > SparkNotes > Philosophy Study Guides > Meditations on First Philosophy

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Meditations on First Philosophy

Rene Descartes

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Table of Contents

List of Characters

Summary and Analysis

Overall Analysis and Themes

First Meditation: skeptical doubts

Second Meditation, Part 1: cogito ergo sum and sum res cogitans

Second Meditation, Part 2: the wax argument

Third Meditation, Part 1: clear and distinct perceptions and Descartes' theory of ideas

Third Meditation, Part 2: Descartes' theory of ideas (cont.)

Third Meditation, part 3: the existence of God and the Cartesian Circle

Fourth Meditation, Part 1: God is no deceiver

Fourth Meditation, Part 2: Will, intellect, and the possibility of error

Fifth Meditation: "The essence of material things, and the existence of God considered a second time"

Sixth Meditation, Part 1: Cartesian body

Sixth Meditation, Part 2: Mind-body dualism

Sixth Meditation, Part 3: Primary and secondary qualities

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