Descartes S Metaphysical Reasoning

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book sheds new light on the role of freedom in Descartes' thought and defends the theory of an internal relation between freedom and reason in his metaphysics.

The Meditations on First Philosophy is one of Descartes's best-known works and one of the most influential philosophical texts ever written, this treatise offers Descartes' metaphysical views on the relationship between the mind and thought, the nature of reality and how accumulated knowledge and our experiences affect us. First published in 1641, the work consists of six meditations on the following topics: the dubiousness of thoughts and assumptions - as Descartes puts it, 'what can be called into doubt'; the nature of the human mind; the existence of God; truth versus falsehood; the essence of material things and, finally, the difference between mind and body. For anyone interested in the study of philosophy, this is an essential and illuminating read. This volume also includes the great philosopher's Discourse on the Method, a brilliant discussion of reasoning and experimentation which helped establish the foundations of the scientific process, a selection of enlightening essays from his Principles of Philosophy and a classic introduction by Frank Sewall.

Of all the works of the man claimed by many as the father of modern philosophy, the MEDITATIONS, first published in 1641, must surely be Rene Descartes' masterpiece. This volume consists of not only a new translation of the original Latin text and the expanded objections and replies, but also includes selected correspondence and other metaphysical writings from the period 1641-49.

Freedom and its internal relation to reason is fundamental to Descartes’ philosophy in general, and to his Meditations on First Philosophy in particular. Without freedom his entire enquiry would not get off the ground, and without understanding the rôle of freedom in his work, we could not understand what motivates key parts of his metaphysics. Yet, not only is freedom a relatively overlooked element, but its internal relation to reason has gone unnoticed by most studies of his philosophy. Self, Reason, and Freedom: A New Light on Descartes’ Metaphysics, by defending freedom’s internal relation to reason, sheds new light on Descartes’ metaphysics and restores the often dismissed Fourth Meditation to the core of his metaphysics as he conceived it. Implicit in that relation is a rejection of any authority external to reason. Andrea Christofidou shows how this lends strength and explanatory force to Descartes’ enquiry, and reveals his conception of the unity of the self and of its place in the world. Self, Reason, and Freedom: A New Light on Descartes’ Metaphysics is essential reading for students and scholars of Descartes and anyone studying seventeenth-century philosophy.

The Discourse on the Method for Reasoning Well and for Seeking Truth in the Sciences offers a concise presentation and defense of René Descartes’s method of intellectual inquiry — a method that greatly influenced both philosophical and scientific reasoning in the early modern world. Descartes’s timeless writing strikes an uncommon balance of novelty and familiarity, offering arguments concerning knowledge, science, and metaphysics (including the famous “I think, therefore I am”) that are as compelling in the twenty-first century as they were in the seventeenth. Ian Johnston’s new translation of the original French text is modern, clear, and thoroughly annotated, ideal for readers unfamiliar with Descartes’s intellectual context. An approachable introduction engages both the historical and the philosophical aspects of the text, helping the reader to understand the concepts and arguments contained therein.

René Descartes wrote a philosophical and autobiographical work titled Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences, which was published in 1637. The most well-known use of it is as the inspiration for the idiom "Je pense, donc Je Suis," which appears in Part IV of the work. Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) contains a similar argument but without this same language, and Principles of Philosophy contains a Latin translation of the identical claim, Cogito, ergo sum (1644). One of the most influential books in the history of contemporary philosophy, Discourse on the Method is crucial to the advancement of the natural sciences. Descartes addresses the issue of skepticism in this work, which was previously researched by other philosophers. Descartes adapted the methods of some of his predecessors and contemporaries while addressing a fact that he believed to be indisputable; in order to observe the world honestly and without any bias, he started out on his line of reasoning by doubting everything. The book's initial printing took place in Leiden, Netherlands. Dioptrique, Météores, and Géométrie were the three works that the book was meant to provide as an introduction.

Descartes’s revolutionary treatise on reason and scientific thought, which sparked radical breakthroughs in mathematics, philosophy, and metaphysics After he finished school, René Descartes was left with more doubts than certainties. His Jesuit education included some of the best teaching available in mathematics, physics, and letters, and yet Descartes found the foundations of his schooling hollow. Determined to discover for himself what was real, he spent the next nine years traveling through Europe, interacting with locals of all walks of life, including nobles, soldiers, and laborers, in search of the breadth of experience that would later inspire his greatest work: Discourse on Method. When it was first published, the book offered a remarkable new approach to gaining knowledge based on reason and skepticism, the steps for which Descartes lays out sequentially, from the deconstruction of all previously held beliefs to the slow and methodical rebuilding of fact anchored in the first and most innate truth: I think, therefore I am. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.