A Guided Tour of Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy

Providing a complete translation of Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy", this text has annotation tasks in the margins which invite students to underline key sentences, paraphrase main ideas, or supply original illustrative examples. Many of the exercises have been rewritten or revised for this edition. An expanded introduction gives a broad overview of the Renaissance, providing an historical and cultural context for Descartes's thinking, and critical-thinking exercises throughout the book aim to help students to review and check their comprehension of central concepts of the "Meditations". Brief selections from Anselm, Aquinas and Augustine highlight their arguments for the existence of God, and a section is dedicated to helping students to focus on writing assignments related to the "Meditations".