ABSTRACT
To understand what Descartes wanted to do in the Meditations, we need to place that work in the context of his life and other writings. His intellectual career did not begin with aspirations in metaphysics but in mathematics and natural philosophy. His earliest efforts in those fields encouraged him to believe that he had discovered a special method. His thoughts on method changed and developed as he gained interest in metaphysics. These changes contributed to his ambitious vision for the Meditations.
