Descartes And The Third Class of Person

Readers typically encounter Rene Descartes through one of two of his main works. It's either the Discourse on Method or the Meditations on First Philosophy.  Both provide some of the same outlines, insights, and even arguments central to Cartesian philosophy, but they do so in quite distinct manners.

In the Discourse - the one I focus upon here - Descartes begins by telling us the story of his own education, or more properly speaking, the narrative of his quest for knowledge that he could...