Discourse on Method and The Meditations

Descartes; F.E. Sutcliffe (transl.)

ISBN 10: 0140442065 / ISBN 13: 9780140442069

Published by Penguin Books, 1972

About this Item

16mo. 187pp. see pictures for synopsis. #05572. Good: Book G shelf wear and toning to wraps and spine, foxing, underlining and marginalia. binding tight. reading copy.

Seller Inventory # 5490

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Discourse on Method and The Meditations
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140442065
• ISBN 13: 9780140442069
• Binding: mass market paperback
• Seller catalogs:
  • philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

René Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on Method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty. Drawing on his own work in geometry, optics, astronomy and physiology, Descartes developed the hypothetical method that characterizes modern science, and this soon came to replace the traditional techniques derived from Aristotle. Many of Descartes'' most radical ideas - such as the disparity between our perceptions and the realities that cause them - have been highly influential in the development of modern philosophy.

About the Author

Epictetus (c. 55-135 AD) was a teacher and Greco-Roman philosopher. Originally a slave from Hierapolis in Anatolia (modern Turkey), he was owned for a time by a prominent freedman at the court of the emperor Nero. After gaining his freedom he moved to Nicopolis on the Adriatic coast of Greece and opened a school of philosophy there. His informal lectures (the Discourses) were transcribed and published by his student Arrian, who also composed a digest of Epictetus' teaching known as the Manual (or Enchiridion).