Descartes' MeditationsThe way Descartes chose to write this piece of literature fascinated me. Descartes was a very intelligent man who wanted to make sense of the world he lived in. The format he used was unusual. It seems to me that he may have used this format, which is a replication of the book of Genesis in the Bible, to have an ever deeper impact on the reader. There are many similarities between Descartes' Meditations and the first book of the Bible, Genesis. For example, Descartes' Meditations were written one day at a time, just as God had created the world one day at a time. Furthermore, the order that Descartes' daily writings took resembled the same order that the Bible had for the creation of the world. Meditation One in the Meditations coincides with the first day of God's creation of the world. In the Bible, "God separated the light from the darkness." (Bible Gen. 1:3) In Descartes' work, the first day was about separating our senses from reality. "[T]here are no definitive signs by which to distinguish being awake from being asleep." (Descartes 352) Descartes is actually asking whether the bodies we reside in actually exist or whether we are in a continuous dream state. I think Descartes' intent in his first entry was to establish a certain frame of mind for reading and understanding the rest of his work. This included, primarily, separating ourselves from our senses as a means of gaining knowledge and being more open to all possibilities. He firmly maintains that our senses deceive us and that we must set them aside to see a thing or event for what it really is. This suggests that all things currently known to us as humans can be questioned, including our own physical bodies. ... half of the paper ... and on", repeatedly saying the same thing in a different way. Furthermore, from the above quote wouldn't it be logical that the entire writing had no other purpose than to satisfy his curiosities? Or could this statement have been made just to calm the people for whom the writing was intended? When I finished reading the selection, I was hoping that on the seventh day Descartes would go and seek professional psychological help! Meditations on Early Philosophy in Which the Existence of God and the Distinction Between the Soul and the Body Are Demonstrated." Classics of Western Philosophy 5th Edition: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 1999. 343 -377. The Inspirational Study Bible. New King James Version Ed. Max Lucado: Word Bibles 1995. Genesis: 1:2-31.