Overview of Rene Descartes’ Meditations 1 and 2 Essay Sample

René Descartes’ “Meditations on First Philosophy” is a work that is focused on doubt. In the first meditation, Descartes questions everything that he knows in order to rebuild his knowledge from the ground up. He is especially doubtful of the reliability of his senses, as he believes that it is possible that he is being deceived by a malicious demon into believing that things are the way that they appear to be. In the second meditation, Descartes argues that the mind is better known than the body. He does this by demonstrating that the mind is capable of doubting its own existence, while the body cannot. He also argues that the mind can understand complex concepts that the body cannot.