Gueroult's study is distinguished by his concern for a balanced understanding of history and philosophy, and by his adherence to Descartes stated wish that his work be viewed not piecemeal but as an architectonic structure with its own sequence and linkage of reasons. Gueroult chose to base his study chiefly on the preeminent source of Cartesian metaphysics, the Meditations. Volume I covered the first five Meditations; Volume II is devoted for the most part to Meditation VI, in which Descartes expounded his doctrine on the existence of material things, on the realms of understanding, imagination, and the senses, and not least, on the real distinction between, yet the substantial union of soul and body.