Jean-Luc Marion is a member of the Académie Française. Previous books with Stanford include Revelation Comes from Elsewhere (2024), In the Self's Place (2012), and Being Given (2002). Stephen E. Lewis, Professor of English at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, has translated numerous books of French philosophy, including eight by Jean-Luc Marion. Stephanie Rumpza is a researcher in philosophy at Sorbonne Université (Paris-IV) and author of Phenomenology of the Icon: Mediating God through the Image (2023).

"In his great work, Jean-Luc Marion peels back the Cartesian masks to reveal an authentic Descartes from beneath the layers of interpretations and commentaries by Cartesians and anti-Cartesians, also discussing those, such as Montaigne and Hobbes, whose work constrained him or set up false expectations for his philosophy. This is a marvelous enterprise which initiates Marion's renewed efforts to read, reread, and rethink the Cartesian corpus from end to end." - Roger Ariew, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida "Once again, Marion unmasks Descartes with charming irreverence, reading him alongside his near contemporaries – Montaigne, Hobbes, and Spinoza – and ours. And once again, he shows us something fresh and new in these texts." - Daniel Garber, A. Watson J. Armour III University Professor, Princeton University

• Foreword: Descartes Beneath the MaskTranslators' NoteI. Doubt, the Supreme Game 1. Between Two Doubts2. The Cartesian Construction of Doubt3. A Review of Former Doubts4. The Mathesis Universalis and the Radical Pyrrhonian Argument5. From One Performative to the Other6. Doubt as First PrincipleII. i>Ego sum, Outside the Subject 1. The Privileged Formulation2. The Objection Starting from Substance3. The Ego as Substance under Reserve4. The Objection Starting from the Subject5. The Objection Starting from Representation6. The Non-reflexive Cogito7. The Objection Starting from the Cause8. The Ego Clear of All CauseIII. Knowing by Esteem 1. The Aporias of Generosity2. Esteem, a Mode of Thinking3. "The True Office of Reason4. To Esteem, to Esteem Oneself (Montaigne)5. Esteem in Love (Descartes)6. Esteem and the Moi (Pascal)7. A Practice of DoubtIV. The Infinite: The Unfolding of Finitude 1. Finitude as a Question2. The Limits without Limits3. The Power and the Incomprehensibility4. The Indetermination of the Perfect5. The Ontic Infinite6. The Transcendental Infinite7. Experience and the Infinite8. The Will Reduced to InfinityV. From Descartes to Phenomenology, and Back1. The Alleged Accord2. Husserl's Disagreement3. Heidegger's Disagreement4. The Question of the Point of Departure5. The Return to Phenomena Quatenus Quidam Cogitandi Modi6. The Neutralization of the Origin and the Criterion of Evidence7. The Doubling of the Res and the Correlation of Appearing8. Thought as Decision9. Thinking by ActsVI. Montaigne, or Doubt without Ego sum, Ego existo1. Without "Any Communication with Being"2. "The Being Outside of Being," or the Dying "Moi"3. The "Moi" without Cogitatio of Self4. "Keeping to Oneself," or the Reduction5. The "Entire Form"6. "My Universal Being"7. Being and "Life"8. To God's GraceVII. Hobbes, or the Idea and Being as Body1. The Debate about the Idea2. Unimaginable Ideas3. Ideas of God and the Self4. The Question of Substance5. The Privilege of Simple Material Natures6. Conceived Being, or the Body7. The Irreducible Privilege of the CogitatioVIII. Spinoza, or the Unification of the Proofs of the Existence of God1. Delay and Divergence2. The Cartesian Origin of the Multiplication of Proofs3. The Irreducible Plurality of Definitions4. Perfection and Cause5. Perfection and the Infinite6. The Unification of Metaphysical NamesIX. Spinoza: Adequation and Vision1. The Construction of Inadequacy2. The Conditions of Adequacy: Spinoza's Agreement with Descartes3. Divine Knowledge and Adequacy: Spinoza's Disagreement with Descartes4. The Conquest and the Aporia of Adequacy5. The First Challenge of the Recourse to Adequacy6. The Second Challenge of the Recourse to Adequacy7. Spinozist Thought and the Beatific VisionConclusion: The Descartes to ComeAppendix: Montaigne, or the Proper Usage of the Skepticism of Saint AugustineNotesIndex of Names