The Method, Meditations, and Philosophy of Descartes

by René Descartes

Publisher:

M. Walter Dunne

, 1901

Overview

The Method, Meditations, and Philosophy of Descartes contains three of Descartes most important works: Discourse on the Method, Meditations, and selections from Principles of Philosophy. Together, these three books make up the core of Cartesian epistemology. In the Discourse on the Method, Descartes lays out his method for acquiring knowledge by way of an autobiographical sketch of his own intellectual development. In Meditations, Descartes structures his method for arriving at certain knowledge in the form of six meditations that take place over six days. In Principles of Philosophy, Descartes gives a thorough summary of his philosophical system and shows how that philosophy is the basis for his scientific system.

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Key Features

• Provides a thorough introduction to the work of Descartes
• Discusses the most prominent works that form the basis of Cartesian epistemology
• Includes a special introduction that covers the life of Descartes, providing context for his works

Contents

• Introduction
  • Descartes—His Life and Writings
  • Philosophy Preceding Descartes in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
  • The Cogito Ergo Sum—Its Nature and Meaning
  • Cogito Ergo Sum—Objections to the Principle
  • The Guarantee of the Principle
  • The Criterion of Truth
  • The Ego and the Material World
  • Innate Ideas
  • Malebranche
  • Spinoza—Relations to Descartes
  • Development of Cartesianism in the Line of Spinoza—Omnis Determinatio Est Negatio
  • Hegelian Criticism—the Ego and the Infinite
• Discourse on Method
  • Various Considerations Touching the Sciences
  • The Principal Rules of the Method
  • Certain Rules of Morals Deduced from the Method
  • Reasons Establishing the Existence of God and of the Human Soul
  • The Order of the Physical Questions Investigated by Descartes; His Explication of the Motion of the Heart, and of Some Other Difficulties Pertaining to Medicine; the Difference between the Soul of Man and That of Brutes
  • What Is Required in Order to Greater Advancement in the Investigation of Nature; Reasons that Induced Descartes to Write
• The Meditations
  • Of the Things Which We May Doubt
  • Of the Nature of the Human Mind; and that It Is More Easily Known Than the Body
  • Of God: That He Exists
  • Of Truth and Error
  • Of the Essence of Material Things; and, Again, of God, That He Exists
  • Of the Existence of Material Things, and of the Real Distinction between the Mind and Body of Man
• The Principles of Philosophy
  • Of the Principles of Human Knowledge
  • Of the Principles of Material Things
  • Of the Visible World
  • Of the Earth

Top Highlights

“the first principle of the Philosophy of which I was in search” (Page 171)

“In this first knowledge, doubtless, there is nothing that gives me assurance of its truth except the clear and distinct perception of what I affirm, which would not indeed be sufficient to give me the assurance that what I say is true, if it could ever happen that anything I thus clearly and distinctly perceived should prove false; and accordingly it seems to me that I may now take as a general rule, that all that is very clearly and distinctly apprehended (conceived) is true.” (Page 234)

“But I conceive God as actually infinite, so that nothing can be added to his perfection” (Page 244)

“Good Sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.” (Page 149)

“the objective reality [or perfection] of any one of my ideas be such as clearly to convince me, that” (Page 240)

Product Details

• Title: The Method, Meditations, and Philosophy of Descartes
• Author: René Descartes
• Translator: John Vietch
• Publisher: M. Walter Dunne
• Publication Date: 1901
• Pages: 371
• Christian Group: Roman Catholic
• Resource Type: Collected Works
• Topic: Modern Philosophy

About René Descartes

René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the ‘Father of Modern Philosophy’, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.