These are a few notes that I have gathered from the reading...

• Descartes lived and worked in a period that had one way of thinking, and one worldview.
• Descartes deduces that truth can only be attained by the mind, as it is the only reasoning organ man possesses. He therefore proceeds to abandon any and all sensory knowledge on the grounds that our senses often deceive us.
• Descartes realizes though that, whatever else this powerful being might deceive him about, it could not deceive him into thinking he existed if he didn't. This is his first certainty - which he is thinking, therefore he exists.
• Branching off of the bullet above... I've come to realize that there can be several problems in Descartes reasoning's. First off, it is not possible to doubt everything... For instance, take Descartes claim that the senses have sometimes deceived him. How does he know they have? It seems as though, Descartes judges on the basis of other sensory experience which he takes to be accurate.... (okay, just storming)
• Descartes seems to employ the method of doubt in his search for certainty. He rejects any belief that can possibly be doubted... until he finds a belief that cannot possibly be doubted.
• My thoughts on the blog above.... To examine every single belief would be an impossible task, so it seems that Descartes instead of doing so, tries to doubt the basis for whole groups of beliefs. First he doubts the senses. (Which Galileo called, God given). Since the senses have at times deceived him in the past, the question is, how can he be so sure that they will not deceive him now? Finally, he considers the possible existence of a powerful being whose sole aim is to deceive him about everything, even the basic 'truths' of mathematics... (which will be an upcoming blog).