Descartes: Discourse on Method - Softcover

Descartes, Rene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1463529031 ISBN 13: 9781463529031

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011

Synopsis

Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy written by legendary author Rene Descartes is a philosophical and mathematical treatise which is widely considered to be one of the top books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Rene Descartes is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The Focus Philosophical Library publishes clear, faithful editions enabling access for modern students to the essential ideas and wisdom of the world’s greatest thinkers.

This is an English translation of Descartes' seminal discourse, with an original essay by Richard Kennington. This text provides readers with a close translation, notes, and a glossary of key terms to facilitate access to ideas as they originally were presented and to make the translator's work transparent.

Richard Kennington (1921–1999) was a professor of philosophy at The Pennsylvania State University and Catholic University of America. His teaching was centered largely on seventeenth-century thinkers such as Bacon and Descartes.

Pamela Kraus teaches at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.

Frank Hunt teaches at St Johns College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About the Author

René Descartes (March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius (latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. Dubbed the "Founder of Modern Philosophy", and the "Father of Modern Mathematics", much of subsequent western philosophy is a reaction to his writings, which have been closely studied from his time down to the present day. His influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system being used in plane geometry and algebra being named after him, and he was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. Descartes frequently contrasted his views with those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, he goes so far as to assert that he will write on his topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Nevertheless many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like St. Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the Schools on two major points: first, he rejects the analysis of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God’s act of creation. Descartes was a major figure in 17th century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. As the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system, Descartes founded analytic geometry, that bridge between algebra and geometry crucial to the invention of calculus and analysis. Descartes's reflections on mind and mechanism began the strain of western thought that much later, impelled by the invention of the electronic computer and by the possibility of machine intelligence, blossomed into, e.g., the Turing test. His most famous statement is: Cogito ergo sum (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found in §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (Latin) and in part IV of Discourse on the Method (French).

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1463529031
• ISBN 13: 9781463529031
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 62