ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Descartes text in the light of three key issues: his quest for certainty; his theory of the mind and its relationship to the body, including his proof of the existence of the material world; and Descartes views on the existence of God. 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 he would have to start from the very foundations of all knowledge. Descartes has reached a point of total deception. If he has no mental agency, no control over his mind at all, over what he experiences or what he thinks, then the very idea of knowing anything seems to be undermined. In order to take his scepticism to heart, Descartes introduces the suggestion that God does not exist and that all our experiences are produced in us by an evil demon who wants to deceive people.
