Descartes and His Contemporaries: Meditations, Objections, and Replies - Softcover

Roger Ariew; Marjorie Glicksman Grene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226026302 ISBN 13: 9780226026305

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1995

Synopsis

Before publishing his landmark Meditations in 1641, Rene Descartes sent his manuscript to many leading thinkers to solicit their objections to his arguments. He included these objections, along with his own detailed replies, as part of the first edition. This unusual strategy gave Descartes a chance to address criticisms in advance and to demonstrate his willingness to consider diverse viewpoints—critical in an age when radical ideas could result in condemnation by church and state, or even death.

Descartes and his Contemporaries recreates the tumultuous intellectual community of seventeenth-century Europe and provides a detailed, modern analysis of the Meditations in its historical context. The book's chapters examine the arguments and positions of each of the objectors—Hobbes, Gassendi, Arnauld, Morin, Caterus, Bourdin, and others whose views were compiled by Mersenne. They illuminate Descartes' relationships to the scholastics and particularly the Jesuits, to Mersenne's circle with its debates about the natural sciences, to the Epicurean movements of his day, and to the Augustinian tradition. Providing a glimpse of the interactions among leading 17th-century intellectuals as they grappled with major philosophical issues, this book sheds light on how Descartes' thought developed and was articulated in opposition to the ideas of his contemporaries.

About this title

About the Author:

Roger Ariew is associate professor of philosophy and humanities at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Marjorie Grene is a professor emerita of philosophy at the University of California-Davis and adjunct professor of philosophy and science studies at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

From Library Journal:

Before the publication of the Meditations on First Philosophies in 1641, Descartes sought criticisms of the work by sending the manuscript to several prominent thinkers; their analyses and his replies were included in the first edition. This volume brings together 13 essays by such writers as Jean-Luc Marion, Theo Verbeek, Peter Dear, and the volume's editors. The essays examine the arguments prepared by Hobbes, Bourdin, Gassendi, and others in reply to Descartes. The essays not only delineate the importance of the Meditations in the history of Western political thought but also provide a compelling look at the intellectual life of the 17th century and the interplay among its prominent thinkers. Particular note should be taken of Tom Sorrell's essay on Hobbes, Margaret Osler's on Gassendi's and Descartes's views on the status of eternal truths, and Dear's on Descartes's "geometrical" form in the Meditations. Recommended for all history of philosophy collections.?Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0226026302
• ISBN 13: 9780226026305
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270