Certainty and Stability

This chapter examines Rene Descartes' views on certainty and stability based on his Meditations. It analyzes the connection between perfect certainty and perfect stability, and argues that Descartes strove for certainty, not as an end in itself, but as a means to stability of belief. The chapter also contends that Descartes searched for certainty in order to avoid the intellectual turmoil of the sort which plagued Europe during his lifetime.