Reading Questions for René Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy

1. In the first meditation, how does Descartes methodically dismantle the metaphysics of certainty? What is the relationship between truth and the senses? And dreams? Why does Descartes refer to "painted representations"? How does memory, through "long and familiar custom," affect his thinking?

2. What are dreams? What is waking?

3. What is the "evil genius"?

4. How is Descartes's cogito the product of doubt? What is its relationship to certainty? How is the mind distinct from everything else?

5. In the second meditation, how does Descartes's account of mental function correspond to the idea of writing? How does the example of the piece of wax help Descartes distinguish between certainty and forms of perception?

6. Are words reliable? Is writing? Read the last paragraph of the second meditation closely.

7. What is the relationship between the "ideas which are in me" and the "things which are outside of me" in the third meditation?

8. Does Descartes doubt the existence of God before recuperating God in his meditations?

9. How does the existence of the "I" (supported by the cogito) prove the existence of God? Which comes first: "I" or God? Relate Descartes's approach to Derrida's reading of the myth of Theuth.