 A related reason why it is important to highlight the distinction between modal claims that are confused and modal claims that are not is that in what is perhaps his most important and influential philosophical work – Meditations on First Philosophy – Descartes often advances a claim that in the final analysis he rejects. He advances modal claims that he takes to be false, and many other claims that he advances he takes to be false as well. For example, he says that what we know best we know either from or through the senses (First Meditation, AT 7:18, CSM 2:17); that it is possible that God is an extreme deceiver (CSM 2:19); that it is possible that God does not exist (CSM 2:19); that it is possible that God, the supreme being on whom all entities depend for their existence, has allowed the existence of an evil demon that is constantly deceiving (CSM 2:20); that we should use imagination to get to know our selves better (Second Meditation, AT 7:27, CSM 2:18); that general perceptions are apt to be more confused than particular ones (ibid., AT 7:30, CSM 2:20); that bodies literally possess qualities like color and taste and sound (ibid.) and heat (Third Meditation, AT 7:41, 43–44, CSM 2:28, 30–31); and that the appropriate way to inquire into whether or not the works of God are perfect is to examine the universe in its entirety (The Fourth Meditation, AT 7:55–56, CSM 2:38–39). Descartes does not subscribe to a single one of these views. He thinks that upon further reflection we can recognize that God is a necessary existent and that it is impossible for Him to be a radical deceiver or to allow the existence of a radical deceiver; that what is known best is known by purely mental scrutiny (Second Meditation, AT 7:31, CSM 2:21); that general perceptions are more clear than perceptions of particulars (ibid.); that color and taste and sound and heat are not in bodies in anything like the way that we imagine (Sixth Meditation, AT 7:81–83, CSM 2:56–58; Principles IV.198, AT 8A:322–23, CSM 1:285); and that things are good by virtue of the fact that God wills them (Sixth Replies, AT 7:431–36, CSM 2:291–94).