Doubt and certainty › How to Read the Experiment

Descartes presents the inquiry in six meditations, each building on earlier results. The first-person voice lets the reader rehearse the reasoning rather than simply receive its conclusions. The first meditation withdraws confidence from familiar beliefs; later meditations attempt to recover knowledge of the self, God, and bodies. The exercise has limits. In the synopsis, Descartes distinguishes speculative inquiry from practical conduct. Suspending assent while investigating foundations is not an instruction to abandon ordinary responsibilities. His dedication also states a theological purpose: he wants to argue for God and the distinction between soul and body through philosophical reasoning, including for readers who do not already accept Scripture as authority. The [primary text, in John Veitch's 1901 translation](https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/philosophy/courses/211/meditationssinglefile.htm), includes that dedication, the preface, and a synopsis of the six meditations. They help explain what the experiment is supposed to establish.