Between Two Worlds: A Reading of Descartes’s Meditations

Jul 6, 2026

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John Carriero’s Between Two Worlds offers a close, relatively unmediated engagement with Descartes’s Meditations concerning First Philosophy. The work guides readers through the text’s argumentative structure, while using historical background, other writings by Descartes, and select scholarship only when needed to make philosophical sense. Inspired by Thomas Aquinas’s text-focused commentarial method, the book aims to clarify Descartes’s claims, interpretive context, and conceptual flow across the meditations, returning to the text after targeted excursions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages538

Reading Time13 h 49 min

Preface

Note on Translations

Introduction

The First Meditation

The Second Meditation

The Third Meditation

The Truth Rule and the “Chief and Most Common Mistake”

Two Demonstrations of God’s Existence

The Fourth Meditation

The Fifth Meditation

The Sixth Meditation

Notes

Bibliography

Index Locorum

Subject Index

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS 􀀁􀀂 This page intentionally left blank Copyright © 2009 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Carriero, John Peter. Between two worlds : a reading of Descartes’s Meditations / John Carriero. [p. cm](p. cm). Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-13560-1 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-691-13561-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Descartes, René, 1596–1650. Meditationes de prima philosophia. 2. First philosophy. I. Title. B1854 .C36 2009 194—dc22 2008036732 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Dante Typeface Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ [press.princeton.edu](press.princeton.edu)[ ](press.princeton.edu)Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 For Katya 􀀁􀀂 This page intentionally left blank Contents 􀀁􀀂 Preface ix Note on Translations xv Introduction 1 1 The First Meditation 27 2 The Second Meditation 65 3 (I) The Third Meditation: The Truth Rule and the “Chief and Most Common Mistake” 128 3 (II) The Third Meditation: Two Demonstrations of God’s Existence 168 4 The Fourth Meditation 223 5 The Fifth Meditation 280 6 The Sixth Meditation 359 Notes 427 Bibliography 489 Index Locorum 495 Subject Index 505 This page intentionally left blank Preface 􀀁􀀂 CAN SOMEO350 years agNoE tandodenaygatgaekewiph i wonork ofits owpniloermsosp? hy writtenThis book iosveran attempt to do so with Descartes’s Meditations concerning First Philosophy. My goal is to work through the text as it appears and to confront it in an unfiltered way. When I draw on material other than the Meditations—historical background, other writings of Descartes, or, occasionally, other scholars’ interpretations—it is because I have found it necessary for making philosophical sense of Descartes’s thought. I hope that these excursions away from the Meditations will be justified by making his argument more understandable when I return. There is much to be gained by working through the text of Meditations, with care, in a relatively unmediated way. I am encouraged in this thought by my experience reading Thomas Aquinas’s commentaries on Aristotle, which are based on lectures he gave one and a half millennia after Aristotle lived. Aquinas, working through Aristotle’s text line byline, gradually develops a philosophically powerful picture of Aristotle’s thought. To be sure, Aquinas’s commentaries benefit from a long tradition of response to Aristotle’s texts, especially by Averroes (referred to by Aquinas simply as “the commentator”); and Aquinas occasionally provides some (ancient) historical context and sometimes takes up the positions of other interpreters. All the same, his lectures are squarely focused on Aristotle’s text and comparatively uncluttered by other matters. Such an approach is well suited to Aristotle because he is a systematic thinker, as a sustained reading of his texts brings out. This kind of approach makes it natural to draw maps of the individual works and chapters, posting on them “you are here” flags; it also encourages reflection on the flow of Aristotle’s discussion—why he takes up the topics he does, why he treats them in the order that he does, and how they are interrelated. Descartes’s Meditations is systematic and philosophically rich enough to merit similar treatment. I say similar, because I do not try to give the text the line-by-line treatment one finds in the tradition of Aristotelian commentary; I also allow myself more latitude to draw on other materials that I think are necessary for understanding Descartes’s text or at least can significantly enhance our understanding of it. But I do usually work

FAQs

What is the main approach of the book toward Descartes’s Meditations?

The book aims to work through the Meditations as they appear, confronting Descartes in an “unfiltered” way, while allowing limited excursions beyond the text when necessary for philosophical clarity.

Why does Carriero compare his method to Thomas Aquinas’s commentaries on Aristotle?

He is encouraged by Aquinas’s practice of developing a powerful picture by reading the text carefully in sequence, typically focusing on the primary text while occasionally adding context or other interpretive positions.

When does the book rely on sources other than the Meditations?

It draws on historical background, other Descartes writings, and occasionally other scholars’ interpretations only when needed to make philosophical sense of Descartes’s thought, especially to enhance understanding upon returning to the Meditations.

Jul 6, 2026

Upload by Oliver