Descartes and the "Cogito". Our Foundation of Philosophical Knowledge

Descartes and the

Author: Caden Sumner

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2015-09-21

Total Pages: 18

ISBN-13: 3668050139

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Presentation / Essay (Pre-University) from the year 2014 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the 17th and 18th Centuries, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: Synthesizing information from various sources, this paper reflects upon the life of René Descartes, as well as the results of his work. Efficacy of Descartes’ postulation is concluded in relation to the impact made upon the world, citing present reflections of the statement “Cogito, Ergo Sum”. The history of Descartes’ early life, his progression into philosophy, and modern influences are utilized to portray his greatest work, and profound effects upon the world. The importance of the Cogito is discussed in depth and in relation to modern society’s interpretation of Cartesian philosophy. The background of Cartesian philosophy, explanations of the process, and meaning of ideas, serve to define the crux of the Cogito itself. Several postulates of famous philosophers contradicting Descartes’ ideas of solipsism are included, as well as modern interpretations by famous authors, such as David Foster Wallace.

Meditations on First Philosophy

Meditations on First Philosophy PDF

Author: René Descartes

Publisher: Newcomb Livraria Press

Published: 1951-01-01

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13:

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"Descartes is the father of modern philosophy, and the Meditations is his most important work." Bertrand Russell "Descartes was the first to bring to light the idea of a transcendental science, which is to contain a system of knowledge of the conditions of possibility of all knowledge." - Kant "The effect of this man on his age and the new age cannot be imagined broadly enough... René Descartes is indeed the true beginner of modern philosophy, insofar as it makes thinking the principle. "- Hegel "Descartes is rightly considered the father of modern philosophy" - Schopenhauer A new 2023 translation directly from the original manuscripts into English of Descartes' famous work "Meditations on First Philosophy". This edition contains a new introduction and afterword from the translator, as well as a timeline of Descartes' life and summaries of each of his works. In these "meditations", in mimicry of Marcus Aurelius, Descartes pens a series of essays on the nature of reality, the existence of God, and the relationship between mind and body. This work is significant because it helped to establish Descartes' philosophy of dualism and had a profound and lasting impact on Western philosophy. In this work, Descartes famously proclaimed, "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"), establishing the moniker of Cartesian Epistemology and the foundation of the Enlightenment

Meditations on First Philosophy & Other Metaphysical Writings

Meditations on First Philosophy & Other Metaphysical Writings PDF

Author: René Descartes

Publisher: Arcturus Publishing

Published: 2021-01-15

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1398809985

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The Meditations on First Philosophy is one of Descartes's best-known works and one of the most influential philosophical texts ever written, this treatise offers Descartes' metaphysical views on the relationship between the mind and thought, the nature of reality and how accumulated knowledge and our experiences affect us. First published in 1641, the work consists of six meditations on the following topics: the dubiousness of thoughts and assumptions - as Descartes puts it, 'what can be called into doubt'; the nature of the human mind; the existence of God; truth versus falsehood; the essence of material things and, finally, the difference between mind and body. For anyone interested in the study of philosophy, this is an essential and illuminating read. This volume also includes the great philosopher's Discourse on the Method, a brilliant discussion of reasoning and experimentation which helped establish the foundations of the scientific process, a selection of enlightening essays from his Principles of Philosophy and a classic introduction by Frank Sewall.

Insight and Inference

Insight and Inference PDF

Author: Murray Miles

Publisher:

Published: 1999-03-01

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13: 9781442615021

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In this major re-examination of Descartes's founding principle, cogito, ergo sum, Murray Miles presents a portrait of Descartes as the Father of Modern Philosophy that is very different from the standard one. Viewing Descartes in both a historical and a systematic perspective, Miles presents a wealth of original analyses, arguments, and re-interpretations of key texts. The result is a fresh and illuminating account of Descartes's metaphysical project and theory of the mind. Descartes's achievement is a radical reversal of the order of knowing, a subjectivism that places knowledge of the mind ahead of knowledge of material things, yet is free of the metaphysical idealism that some of his successors went on to embrace. A meticulous, scholarly, and exhaustive analysis, this book provides a minutely detailed reading of each word of Descartes's founding principle, exploring in great depth the underlying epistemology and ontology. The book will fully repay a careful reading by any serious student of Descartes's philosophy.

Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy

Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy PDF

Author: René Descartes

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1996-04-18

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9780521558181

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The Meditations, one of the key texts of Western philosophy, is the most widely studied of all Descartes' writings. This authoritative translation by John Cottingham, taken from the much acclaimed three-volume Cambridge edition of the Philosophical Writings of Descartes, is based upon the best available texts and presents Descartes' central metaphysical writings in clear, readable modern English. As well as the complete text of the Meditations, the reader will find a thematic abridgement of the Objections and Replies (which were originally published with the Meditations) containing Descartes' replies to his critics. These extracts, specially selected for the present volume, indicate the main philosophical difficulties which occurred to Descartes' contemporaries and show how Descartes developed and clarified his arguments in response. This edition contains a new comprehensive introduction to Descartes' philosophy by John Cottingham and the classic introductory essay on the Meditations by Bernard Williams.

Philosophical Writings

Philosophical Writings PDF

Author: René Descartes

Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company

Published: 1971

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13:

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These two volumes provide a completely new translation of the philosophical works of Descartes, based on the best available Latin and French texts. They are intended to replace the only reasonably comprehensive selection of his works in English, by Haldane and Ross, first published in 1911. All the works included in that edition are translated here, together with a number of additional texts crucial for an understanding of Cartesian philosophy, including important material from Descartes? scientific writings. The result should meet the widespread demand for an accurate and authoritative edition of Descartes? philosophical writings in clear and readable modern English.

Discourse on the Method

Discourse on the Method PDF

Author: René Descartes

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780300067736

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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.

Human Nature and Natural Knowledge

Human Nature and Natural Knowledge PDF

Author: B. Donagan

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9400953496

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Everybody knows Marjorie Grene. In part, this is because she is a presence: her vividness, her energy, her acute intelligence, her critical edge, her quick humor, her love of talking, her passion for philosophy - all combine to make her inevitable. Marjorie Grene cannot be missed or overlooked or undervalued. She is there - Dasein personified. It is an honor to present a Festschrift to her. It honors philosophy to honor her. Professor Grene has shaped American philosophy in her distinc tive way (or, we should say, in distinctive ways). She was among the first to introduce Heidegger's thought ... critically ... to the American and English philosophical community, first in her early essay in the Journal of Philosophy (1938), and then in her book Heidegger (1957). She has written as well on Jaspers and Marcel, as in the Kenyon Review (1957). Grene's book Dreadful Freedom (1948) was one of the most important and influential introductions to Existentialism, and her works on Sartre have been among the most profound and insightful studies of his philosophy from the earliest to the later writings: her book Sartre (1973), and her papers 'L'Homme est une passion inutile: Sartre and Heideg ger' in the Kenyon Review (1947), 'Sartre's Theory of the Emo tions' in Yale French Studies (1948), 'Sartre: A Philosophical Study' in Mind (1969), 'The Aesthetic Dialogue of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty' in the initial volume of the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology (1970), 'On First Reading L'Idiot de

Descartes

Descartes PDF

Author: Georges Dicker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0199701601

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A solid grasp of the main themes and arguments of the seventeenth-century philosopher René Descartes is essential for understanding modern thought, and a necessary entrée to the work of the Empiricists and Immanuel Kant. It is also crucial to the study of contemporary epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. This new edition of Georges Dicker's commentary on Descartes's masterpiece, Meditations on First Philosophy, features a new chapter on the Fourth Meditation and improved treatments of the famous cogito ergo sum and the notorious problem of the Cartesian Circle, among numerous other improvements and updates. Clear and accessible, it serves as an introduction to Descartes's ideas for undergraduates and as a sophisticated companion to his Meditations for advanced readers. The volume provides a thorough discussion of several basic issues of epistemology and metaphysics elicited from the main themes and arguments of the Meditations. It also delves into the work's historical background and critical reception. Dicker offers his own assessments of the Cartesian Doubt, the cogito, the causal and ontological proofs of God's existence, Cartesian freedom and theodicy, Cartesian Dualism, and Descartes's views about the existence and nature of the material world. The commentary also incorporates a wealth of recent Descartes scholarship, and inculcates -- but does not presuppose -- knowledge of the methods of contemporary analytic philosophy.