Helpful books and resources

Descartes: A Guide for the Perplexed,

By Justin Skirry

This book contains material that goes beyond that expected of candidates but is very useful background reading for teachers who want to refresh their understanding of key parts of the Meditations. The author gives a clear account of the method of doubt showing how it exemplifies Descartes’ approach to reasoning and how he differs from the then current Aristotelian syllogistic approach. The material on the method of doubt and on the cogito is essentially descriptive and there is no discussion of standard criticisms. His account of the method of doubt includes the deceiving god and the often overlooked point that the non-existence of god would lead to the same doubt. However, there is no mention of the malicious demon. There is helpful material on whether the cogito is a deduction or an intuition. The material on Descartes’ metaphysics will be helpful to teachers who should ideally understand things in greater detail than might be expected of their students. The causal adequacy principle and the trademark argument are well explained but, again, the essence would have to be distilled down for Higher pupils.