The Blackwell Guide to Descartes' Meditations

Copyright © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

The Blackwell Guide to Descartes' Meditations

Editor(s): Stephen Gaukroger

Published Online: 11 FEB 2008

Print ISBN: 9781405118750

Online ISBN: 9780470776476

DOI: 10.1002/9780470776476

About this Book

Product Information

About The Product

Consisting of twelve newly commissioned essays and enhanced by William Molyneux's famous early translation of the Meditations, this volume touches on all the major themes of one of the most influential texts in the history of philosophy.


  • Situates the Meditations in its philosophical and historical context.
  • Touches on all of the major themes of the Meditations, including the mind-body relation, the nature of the mind, and the existence of the material world.

Table of contents

    1. You have free access to this content
      Frontmatter (pages i–ix)

    2. Introduction (pages 1–5)

      Stephen Gaukroger

    3. Chapter 1

      The Meditations and the Objections and Replies (pages 6–16)

      Roger Ariew

    4. Chapter 2

      Descartes and Skepticism (pages 17–29)

      Charles Larmore

    5. Chapter 3

      The Cogito and the Foundations of Knowledge (pages 30–47)

      Edwin Curley

    6. Chapter 4

      The Nature of the Mind (pages 48–66)

      Marleen Rozemond

    7. Chapter 5

      The Doctrine of Substance (pages 67–85)

      Jorge Secada

    8. Chapter 6

      The Doctrine of Ideas (pages 86–103)

      Steven Nadler

    9. Chapter 7

      Proofs for the Existence of God (pages 104–121)

      Lawrence Nolan and Alan Nelson

    10. Chapter 8

      The Cartesian Circle (pages 122–141)

      Gary Hatfield

    11. Chapter 9

      Judgment and Will (pages 142–159)

      Michael Della Rocca

    12. Chapter 10

      Descartes' Proof of the Existence of Matter (pages 160–178)

      Desmond M. Clarke

    13. Chapter 11

      The Mind-Body Relation (pages 179–192)

      John Cottingham

    14. Chapter 12

      Seventeenth-Century Responses to the Meditations (pages 193–203)

      Tad M. Schmaltz

    15. You have free access to this content
      Appendix: Descartes' Six Metaphysical Meditations, trans. William Molyneux (1680) (pages 204–242)

    16. You have free access to this content
      References (pages 243–249)

    17. You have free access to this content
      Index (pages 250–254)

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