'Meditations on First Philosophy' is a philosophical treatise written by René Descartes first published in Latin in 1641. The book is, made up of six meditations, in which Descartes first discards all belief in things, which are not absolutely, certain, and then, tries to establish what can be known for sure. The meditations were, written as if he was meditating for 6 days: each meditation refers to the last one as "yesterday". However, Descartes...

"In Descartes's Meditations, one of the key texts of Western philosophy, the thinker rejects all his former beliefs in the quest for new certainties. Discovering his own existence as a thinking entity in the very exercise of doubt, he goes on to prove the existence of God, who guarantees his clear and distinct ideas as a means of access to the truth. He develops new conceptions of body and mind, capable of serving as foundations for the new science...

On March 10, 1762, Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant, was publicly executed in Toulouse, France. This punishment had been prescribed by the regional parliament, with hopes that Calas would confess to murdering his adult son in order to prevent his conversion to Catholicism. Steadfastly declaring his innocence, the elderly Huguenot expired after hours of suffering, his limbs broken one by one before the executioner strangled him and burned his corpse....