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Descartes and the Doubting Mind

Descartes and the Doubting Mind PDF Author: James Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441179860
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Book Description
Descartes' characterisation of the mind as a 'thinking thing' marks the beginning of modern philosophy of mind. It is also the point of departure for Descartes' own system in which the mind is the first object of knowledge for those who reason in an 'orderly way'. This ground-breaking book shows that the Cartesian mind has been widely misunderstood: typically treated as simply the subject of phenomenal consciousness, ignoring its deeply intellectual character. James Hill argues that this interpretation has gone hand in hand with a misreading of Descartes' method of doubt which treats it as all-inclusive and universal in scope. In fact, the sceptical arguments of the First Meditation aim to lead the mind away from the senses and towards the intellectual 'notions' that the mind has within it, and which are never the subject of doubt. Hill also places Descartes' concept of mind into the wider setting of his science of nature, showing how he wished to reveal a mental subject that would able to comprehend the new physics necessitated by Copernicus' heliocentrism.

Descartes and the Doubting Mind

Descartes and the Doubting Mind PDF Author: James Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441179860
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Book Description
Descartes' characterisation of the mind as a 'thinking thing' marks the beginning of modern philosophy of mind. It is also the point of departure for Descartes' own system in which the mind is the first object of knowledge for those who reason in an 'orderly way'. This ground-breaking book shows that the Cartesian mind has been widely misunderstood: typically treated as simply the subject of phenomenal consciousness, ignoring its deeply intellectual character. James Hill argues that this interpretation has gone hand in hand with a misreading of Descartes' method of doubt which treats it as all-inclusive and universal in scope. In fact, the sceptical arguments of the First Meditation aim to lead the mind away from the senses and towards the intellectual 'notions' that the mind has within it, and which are never the subject of doubt. Hill also places Descartes' concept of mind into the wider setting of his science of nature, showing how he wished to reveal a mental subject that would able to comprehend the new physics necessitated by Copernicus' heliocentrism.

Meditations on First Philosophy

Meditations on First Philosophy PDF Author: René Descartes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780941736121
Category : First philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description


Discourse on the Method

Discourse on the Method PDF Author: René Descartes
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300067736
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
Descartes' ideas not only changed the course of Western philosophy but also led to or transformed the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, physics and mathematics, political theory and ethics, psychoanalysis, and literature and the arts. This book reprints Descartes' major works, Discourse on Method and Meditations, and presents essays by leading scholars that explore his contributions in each of those fields and place his ideas in the context of his time and our own. There are chapters by David Weissman on metaphysics and psychoanalysis, John Post on epistemology, Lou Massa on physics and mathematics, William T. Bluhm on politics and ethics, and Thomas Pavel on literature and art. These essays are accompanied by others by David Weissman and by Stephen Toulmin that introduce the idea of intellectual lineages, discuss the period in which Descartes wrote, and reexamine the premises of his philosophy in light of contemporary philosophical, political, and social thinking.

Silencing the Demon’s Advocate

Silencing the Demon’s Advocate PDF Author:
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 080477966X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
The author argues that many problems of interpretation including notorious problems of circularity, arise from a failure to recognise that Descartes' strategy for the attainment of certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt.

Descartes's Method of Doubt

Descartes's Method of Doubt PDF Author: Janet Broughton
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400825040
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
Descartes thought that we could achieve absolute certainty by starting with radical doubt. He adopts this strategy in the Meditations on First Philosophy, where he raises sweeping doubts with the famous dream argument and the hypothesis of an evil demon. But why did Descartes think we should take these exaggerated doubts seriously? And if we do take them seriously, how did he think any of our beliefs could ever escape them? Janet Broughton undertakes a close study of Descartes's first three meditations to answer these questions and to present a fresh way of understanding precisely what Descartes was up to. Broughton first contrasts Descartes's doubts with those of the ancient skeptics, arguing that Cartesian doubt has a novel structure and a distinctive relation to the commonsense outlook of everyday life. She then argues that Descartes pursues absolute certainty by uncovering the conditions that make his radical doubt possible. She gives a unified account of how Descartes uses this strategy, first to find certainty about his own existence and then to argue that God exists. Drawing on this analysis, Broughton provides a new way to understand Descartes's insistence that he hasn't argued in a circle, and she measures his ambitions against those of contemporary philosophers who use transcendental arguments in their efforts to defeat skepticism. The book is a powerful contribution both to the history of philosophy and to current debates in epistemology.

Meditations, Objections, and Replies

Meditations, Objections, and Replies PDF Author: René Descartes
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 1603840567
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
This edition features reliable, accessible translations; useful editorial materials; and a straightforward presentation of the Objections and Replies, including the objections from Caterus, Arnauld, and Hobbes, accompanied by Descartes' replies, in their entirety. The letter serving as a reply to Gassendi--in which several of Descartes' associates present Gassendi's best arguments and Descartes' replies--conveys the highlights and important issues of their notoriously extended exchange. Roger Ariew's illuminating Introduction discusses the Meditations and the intellectual environment surrounding its reception.

Desert Islands

Desert Islands PDF Author: Gilles Deleuze
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Book Description
An anthology of 40 texts and interviews written over 20 years by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, of which the early texts belong to literary criticism. Philosophy clearly dominates the rest of the book with a surprise admission by Deleuze that Sartre was his master.

Descartes' Philosophical Revolution: A Reassessment

Descartes' Philosophical Revolution: A Reassessment PDF Author: H. Ben-Yami
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137512024
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 474

Book Description
Ben-Yami shows how the technology of Descartes' time shapes his conception of life, soul and mind–body dualism; how Descartes' analytic geometry helps him develop his revolutionary conception of representation without resemblance; and how these ideas combine to shape his new and influential theory of perception.

On Descartes' Passive Thought

On Descartes' Passive Thought PDF Author: Jean-Luc Marion,
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022619261X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
On Descartes’ Passive Thought is the culmination of a life-long reflection on the philosophy of Descartes by one of the most important living French philosophers. In it, Jean-Luc Marion examines anew some of the questions left unresolved in his previous books about Descartes, with a particular focus on Descartes’s theory of morals and the passions. Descartes has long been associated with mind-body dualism, but Marion argues here that this is a historical misattribution, popularized by Malebranche and popular ever since both within the academy and with the general public. Actually, Marion shows, Descartes held a holistic conception of body and mind. He called it the meum corpus, a passive mode of thinking, which implies far more than just pure mind—rather, it signifies a mind directly connected to the body: the human being that I am. Understood in this new light, the Descartes Marion uncovers through close readings of works such as Passions of the Soul resists prominent criticisms leveled at him by twentieth-century figures like Husserl and Heidegger, and even anticipates the non-dualistic, phenomenological concepts of human being discussed today. This is a momentous book that no serious historian of philosophy will be able to ignore.

Descartes and Cartesianism

Descartes and Cartesianism PDF Author: Stephen Gaukroger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191085189
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
This volume is a collection of original essays dealing with Cartesian themes and problems, especially as these arise in connection with Cartesian natural science and the theory of perception, agency, mentality, divinity, and the passions. It focuses in particular on Desmond Clarke's important contributions to these aspects of Descartes's writings. Stephen Gaukroger and Catherine Wilson split the volume into four distinct parts; Cartesian Science, Mind and Perception, Actions and Passions, and Cartesian Woman. The contributors are internationally known and respected scholars of 17th century philosophy writing on a number of their favourite Cartesian topics.