Stephen Gaukroger 
The Blackwell Guide to Descartes’ Meditations 

Consisting of twelve newly commissioned essays and enhanced by
William Molyneux’s famous early translation of the
Meditations, this volume touches on all the major themes of
one of the most influential texts in the history of
philosophy.

* * Situates the Meditations in its philosophical and historical
context.

* Touches on all of the major themes of the Meditations,
including the mind-body relation, the nature of the mind, and the
existence of the material world.

Table of Content

Notes on Contributors.

References to Descartes’ Works.

Introduction.

Stephen Gaukroger.

1. The Meditations and the Objections and Replies: Roger Ariew
(University of South Florida, Tampa).

2. Descartes and skepticism: Charles Larmore (University of
Chicago).

3. The cogito and foundations of knowledge: Edwin Curley
(University of Michigan).

4. The nature of the mind: Marleen Rozemond (University of
Toronto).

5. The doctrine of substance: Jorge Secada (University of
Virginia).

6. The doctrine of ideas: Steven Nadler (University of
Wisconsin).

7. Proofs for the existence of God: Lawrence Nolan (California
State University) and Alan Nelson (University of California –
Irvine).

8. The Cartesian circle: Gary Hatfield (University of
Pennsylvania).

9. Judgement and will: Michael Della Rocca (Yale
University).

10. Descartes’ proof of the existence of matter: Desmond
Clarke (University College Cork).

11. The mind-body relation: John Cottingham (Reading
University).

12. Seventeenth-century responses to the Meditations: Tad
Schmaltz (Duke University).

Appendix: Descartes’ Metaphysical Meditations, trans.
William Molyneux (1680).

References.

Index

About the author

Stephen Gaukroger is Professor of History of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Sydney, and presently holds an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship. His works include Descartes: An Intellectual Biography (1995), Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early-modern Philosophy (2001), and Descartes’ System of Natural Philosophy (2002).