Introduction

René Descartes (1596–1650) held that some truths are beyond doubt. Among these he held that some are necessary, in a sense robust enough to mean that not even God could have made them false. And he held that metaphysics consists largely in the pursuit of such truths.

You may already be taken aback. Have I not just contradicted two of the best-known facts about Descartes’ philosophy? Surely, in his very method of doubt, he showed that there was no truth that he took to be beyond doubt, or no necessary truth. And did he not famously insist that both the truth and the necessity of any necessary truth depend on God’s free choice?