Meditations on First Philosophy
Cambridge University Press eBooks April 18, 1996 DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511805028.006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 827 |
| Key points | Descartes argues that the existence of God and the immortality of the soul should be proved by philosophical reasoning rather than accepted on faith alone, because unbelievers cannot be persuaded to adopt religion or moral virtue until these truths are demonstrated by natural reason. He also contends that fear of God and expectation of an afterlife are needed to motivate people to prefer virtue over expediency. |
Abstract
[Dedicatory letter to the Sorbonne] To those most learned and distinguished men, the Dean and Doctors of the sacred Faculty of Theology at Paris, from Rene Descartes. I have a very good reason for offering this book to you, and I am confident that you will have an equally good reason for giving it your protection once you understand the principle behind my undertaking; so much so, that my best way of commending it to you will be to tell you briefly of the goal which I shall be aiming at in the book. I have always thought that two topics - namely God and the soul - are prime examples of subjects where demonstrative proofs ought to be given with the aid of philosophy rather than theology. For us who are believers, it is enough to accept on faith that the human soul does not die with the 2 body, and that God exists; but in the case of unbelievers, it seems that there is no religion, and practically no moral virtue, that they can be persuaded to adopt until these two truths are proved to them by natural reason. And since in this life the rewards offered to vice are often greater than the rewards of virtue, few people would prefer what is right to what is expedient if they did not fear God or have the expectation of an after-life.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 26
- On the supposed limits of physicalist theories of mind Philosophical Studies May 22, 2010
- The sense of certainty and the reliability of first person reports: An investigation using micro‐phenomenological self‐inquiry Scandinavian Journal of Psychology July 30, 2020
- "Sentio ergo est": Unmasking the psychological realities of emotional misperception. Perception 2025
- Do Personality Features Influence Our Intuitions of the Mind-Body Problem? A Pilot Study Frontiers in Psychology July 20, 2018
- Neuroscience of consciousness: cognition, physics and philosophy of decoding the human brain Journal of Applied Cognitive Neuroscience December 11, 2022
and 21 more in the library