UNDERSTANDING RENÉ DESCARTES: The Smart Student?s Guide to Meditations on First Philosophy (Philosophy Study Guides)

This philosophy study guide for Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is the seventh book in the Smart Student's Guides to Philosophical Classics series. Like the other books in the series, it is much more than an outline or a set of notes and flash cards. It is a book for “smart students” who are serious about understanding and thinking critically about one of the most consequential works in the history of philosophy.
Part I of the book is presented in a way that makes it much easier for a new philosophy student to understand and think critically about Descartes’ classic work. Each of the six Meditations is divided into smaller sections with subtitles, followed by Professor Houlgate’s commentary and critiques. Questions for thought and discussion are at the end of each chapter. These questions are intended to help students prepare for examinations and give them ideas and topics for term papers.
Part II takes the student deeper into Descartes’ meditations. It includes two chapters on method, analyses of Descartes’ arguments, and comparisons to and criticisms of other philosophers on important philosophical problems and theories. These are presented in a way that invites students to think for themselves about the meditations, engage with their professor in classroom discussion, and organize and write a successful term paper.