Meditations on First Philosophy

⚖The case for it

The book that rebooted Western philosophy. Descartes sits by a fire in 1641 and systematically doubts everything (senses, mathematics, reality itself) until he hits bedrock: 'I think, therefore I am.' From there he rebuilds. You may reject his solutions, and most do, but his method of radical doubt is inescapable. Every epistemologist since is either building on Descartes or trying to escape him.

— the canon

✕The case against

Doubt gets all the fame; the rebuilding is where it wobbles. Descartes needs God to guarantee clear and distinct ideas, and clear and distinct ideas to prove God, a circle his contemporaries spotted immediately and he never escaped. Accept the famous demolition in Meditation One and you're stuck living in the rickety structure the other five erect on it.

— the honest librarian