ABSTRACT
Descartes begins Meditation I by declaring that he has known for a long time that in order to establish anything ‘firm and constant in the sciences’ (95), he would have to start from the very foundations of all knowledge. He does not need to reject as false everything he thinks he knows, but he needs to ‘avoid believing things that are not entirely certain and indubitable’ (95). Descartes is adopting scepticism. He is aiming only to doubt, not to reject, his beliefs.
