In Meditations on First Philosophy, French philosopher René Descartes, now regarded as the father of Western philosophy, introduces the concept of the dichotomy—the separation of mind and body—by determining, “I think, therefore I am.” Over the course of six meditations, each presented as though they were the meditations of a single day, Descartes contemplates certainty and uncertainty, dismissing everything that cannot be known definitely, and making a case for the few things that can indeed be known—first ascertaining the truth of his own existence and then that of God.

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