The Meditations (1641) must surely be Rene Descartes' masterpiece. The six Meditations and accompanying selections from the Objections and Replies provide a definitive statement of what Descartes intended as the foundations of his whole philosophy. His project was to resolve the epistemological questions brought about by the prevailing scepticism of his age; to build, from the basis of self-awareness, through the notion of a benevolent God, to a systematic and novel approach to metaphysics, and to construct a secure starting-point for science. The first part of a new two-volume edition of the works of Descartes in Penguin Classics, this volume consists not only of a new translation of the original Latin text and extensive selections from the Objections and Replies, but also includes relevant correspondence from the period 1643-9, Part One of The Principles of Philosophy and Comments On a Certain Manifesto, as examples of Descartes' other metaphysical writings from the period 1641-9.
