Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen: The Defense of Reason in Descartes's Meditations

Harry G. Frankfurt (Princeton University Press)
Frankfurt provides an analysis to the question that lies at the heart of Descartes’s Meditations: On what basis can reason claim to provide any justification for the truth of our beliefs? Frankfurt explores Descartes’s defense of reason against his own doubts that he might be a madman. Harry G. Frankfurt is a professor of philosophy emeritus at Princeton University.

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Terri Sewell ’86 at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, stands next to a portrait of civil rights leader John Lewis.
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November 2026

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