Meditations on First Philosophy - Book Report/Review Example

 In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes sets out to defend this edict logically.Descartes proposes that postulating logical proof of the eternal human soul demands certain consequences. One consequence is that the mind must be distinct from the body, and another consequence is that God must exist. Descartes claimed that the postulate is so certain that anyone who does not accept it as truth is atheist and therefore an intellectual poser. Descartes goes on to say that the proof should be so certain as to rival the certainty of geometry and that just because the originator of an idea may not be perfect, it does not mean that a characteristic of the idea itself is not perfection.

It is noteworthy to mention that Descartes was seeking the approval of the Sorbonne which he never received. Nevertheless, he remains true to the logic and admits that he could be erroneous in his thinking.In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes sets out to defend Leo X's edict. In the 13th century attempt to reconcile Aristotelians with Islamism, Averroes postulated that the soul has two parts: one individual, the other divine. At the Lateran Council of 1513, the thought of a finite soul was deemed heresy.

Averroes asserted that the individual portion of the soul was finite and dies with the body, in Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes refutes this claim.