Descartes: How Can We Know Anything for Certain?

For this session, we'll read and discuss René Descartes' Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. These works explore foundational questions in epistemology, metaphysics, and the nature of human knowledge, providing a detailed account of how individuals can achieve certainty and understanding through rational inquiry.

Questions discussed in these works include: What is the foundation of true knowledge? How can individuals distinguish between reality and illusion? What role does doubt play in philosophical investigation? Descartes' exploration of philosophy emphasizes the method of radical skepticism, the search for indubitable truths, and the role of reason in shaping our understanding of existence, including his famous cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am").

You can use any translation or version of the text you like (I'll be using the Cress translation here). A free translation is available on Project Gutenberg here