Against Cartesian Philosophy (Jhp Books)

French philosophy in the latter half of the seventeenth century was dominated by reactions to Descartes. So influential was his philosophical legacy that it was practically impossible to write or discuss philosophy without taking a position in regard to the Cartesian worldview. Later philosophers either adapted Descartes’ system to fit other points of view, as in Malbranche’s well-known Christianized version of Cartesian philosophy in his Search After Truth, or they criticized aspects of Descartes’ philosophy that were perceived to threaten more traditional approaches to philosophy.


In the latter camp was the work presented here, the Censura Philosophiae Cartesianae, by Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721), an erudite cleric, teacher, philosopher, and scientist, and one of the most accomplished intellectuals of the age. Although his name is known to historians of the period, his main work, the Censura, while often enough mentioned, is seldom actually read. This is probably due to the fact that it was written in Latin and until now has never been translated. Thomas M. Lennon has done both historians and philosophers a great service by presenting this fully annotated translation of Huet’s magnum opus.


The Censura is the most comprehensive, unrelenting, and devastating critique of Descartes ever published. Anticipating the issues that have occupied Cartesian scholarship for the past half-century, Huet argues at length that Descartes’ philosophy fails on many counts: his methodology of doubting; the reliability of his famous cogito ("I think, therefore I am"); clarity and distinctness as criteria of truth; his proofs for the existence of God; the circularity of Descartes’ main argument in the Meditations; and numerous other points.


Complete with a long introduction explaining the circumstances, history, and importance of the work, a brief biography of its fascinating author, and helpful scholarly annotations, this first-ever translation of Huet’s Censura brings to light an important philosophical work that has been neglected for more than three hundred years.


This is the first volume in the new series, JHP Books, published in cooperation with the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Thomas M. Lennon (London, Ontario) is professor of philosophy at the University of Western Ontario; among his publications are Reading Bayle and The Battle of Gods and Giants: The Legacies of Descartes and Gassendi, 1655-1715.