Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy
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Compose a polished essay on the following topic:

Where does Descartes go wrong? Are his goals wrong? Is he wrong to try to accomplish those goals in the ways he does? How might Descartes respond to your criticism? Even if he is wrong, is there any value in Descartes’ philosophy?

Cite this paper using APA in text citations citing either the former, middle or the latter of one of the first five meditations for every citation. Call each meditation M1 for meditation 1, M2 for meditation 2, M3, M4, and M5, respectively. [ i.e.: (middle M4) ]This is an obligatorily required by my professor as opposed to citing the actual page numbers. (This paper is only on the first Five meditations and not the Sixth)

RENE DESCARTES MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY
Meditations On First Philosophy
René Descartes
1641
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1996. This file is of the 1911
edition of The Philosophical Works of Descartes (Cambridge
University Press), translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane.
Prefatory Note To The Meditations.
The first edition of the Meditations was published in Latin by Michael
Soly of Paris “at the Sign of the Phoenix” in 1641 cum Privilegio et
Approbatione Doctorum. The Royal “privilege” was indeed given, but
the “approbation” seems to have been of a most indefinite kind. The
reason of the book being published in France and not in Holland, where
Descartes was living in a charming country house at Endegeest near
Leiden, was apparently his fear that the Dutch ministers might in some
way lay hold of it. His friend, Pere Mersenne, took charge of its
publication in Paris and wrote to him about any difficulties that
occurred in the course of its progress through the press. The second
edition was however published at Amsterdam in 1642 by Louis Elzevir,
and this edition was accompanied by the now completed “Objections
and Replies.”1 The edition from which the present translation is made is
the second just mentioned, and is that adopted by MM. Adam and
Tannery as the more correct, for reasons that they state in detail in the
preface to their edition. The work was translated into French by the
Duc de Luynes in 1642 and Descartes considered the translation so
excellent that he had it published some years later. Clerselier, to
complete matters, had the “Objections” also published in French with
the “Replies,” and this, like the other, was subject to Descartes’ revision
1 Published separately.
and correction. This revision renders the French edition specially
valuable. Where it seems desirable an alternative reading from the
French is given in square brackets.
—Elizabeth S. Haldane
TO THE MOST WISE AND ILLUSTRIOUS THE
DEAN AND DOCTORS OF THE SACRED
FACULTY OF THEOLOGY IN PARIS.
The motive which induces me to present to you this Treatise is so
excellent, and, when you become acquainted with its design, I am
convinced that you will also have so excellent a motive for taking it
under your protection, that I feel that I cannot do better, in order to
render it in some sort acceptable to you, than in a few words to state
what I have set myself to do.
I have always considered that the two questions respecting God and
the Soul were the chief of those that ought to be demonstrated by
philosophical rather than theological argument. For although it is quite
enough for us faithful ones to accept by means of faith the fact that the
human soul does not perish with the body, and that God exists, it
certainly does not seem possible ever to persuade infidels of any
religion, indeed, we may almost say, of any moral virtue, unless, to
begin with, we prove these two facts by means of the natural reason.
And inasmuch as often in this life greater rewards are offered for vice
than for virtue, few people would prefer the right to the useful, were
they restrained neither by the fear of God nor the expectation of another
life; and although it is absolutely true that we must believe that there is
a God, because we are so taught in the Holy Scriptures, and, on the
other hand, that we must believe the Holy Scriptures because they come
from God (the reason of this is, that, faith being a gift of God, He who
gives the grace to cause us to believe other things can likewise give it to
cause us to believe that He exists), we nevertheless could not place this
argument before infidels, who might accuse us of reasoning in a circle.
And, in truth, I have noticed that you, along with all the theologians, did
not only affirm that the existence of God may be proved by the natural
reason, but also that it may be inferred from the Holy Scriptures, that
knowledge about Him is much clearer than that which we have of many
created things, and, as a matter of fact, is so easy to acquire, that those
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