Selected Philosophical Writings

by René Descartes, John Cottingham (Translator), Robert Stoothoff (Translator)

Based on the new and much acclaimed two volume Cambridge edition of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes by Cottingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch, this anthology of essential texts contains the most important and widely studied of those writings, including the Discourse and Meditations and substantial extracts from the Regulae, Optics, Principles, Objections and Replies, Comments on a Broadsheet, and Passions of the Soul.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, France, History, School, Reference

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) and Principles of Philosophy (1644), main works of French mathematician and scientist René Descartes, considered the father of analytic geometry and the founder of modern rationalism, include the famous dictum "I think, therefore I am."

A set of two perpendicular lines in a plane or three in space intersect at an origin in Cartesian coordinate system. Cartesian coordinate, a member of the set of numbers, distances, locates a point in this system. Cartesian coordinates describe all points of a Cartesian plane.

From given sets, {X} and {Y}, one can construct Cartesian product, a set of all pairs of elements (x, y), such that x belongs to {X} and y belongs to {Y}.

Cartesian philosophers include Antoine Arnauld.



René Descartes, a writer, highly influenced society. People continue to study closely his writings and subsequently responded in the west. He of the key figures in the revolution also apparently influenced the named coordinate system, used in planes and algebra.

Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul , a treatise on the early version of now commonly called emotions, he goes so far to assert that he writes on his topic "as if no one had written on these matters before." Many elements in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or earlier like Saint Augustine of Hippo provide precedents. Naturally, he differs from the schools on two major points: He rejects corporeal substance into matter and form and any appeal to divine or natural ends in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of act of creation of God.

Baruch Spinoza and Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz later advocated Descartes, a major figure in 17th century Continent, and the empiricist school of thought, consisting of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume, opposed him. Leibniz and Descartes, all well versed like Spinoza, contributed greatly. Descartes, the crucial bridge with algebra, invented the coordinate system and calculus. Reflections of Descartes on mind and mechanism began the strain of western thought; much later, the invention of the electronic computer and the possibility of machine intelligence impelled this thought, which blossomed into the Turing test and related thought. His stated most in §7 of part I and in part IV of Discourse on the Method .

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did a deep reading of Discourse on Method and the Meditations for a philosophy class. I was pleasantly surprised by the style, Descartes is conversational, honest and relatively straightforward for a philosopher. Of course some of his arguments don't hold up very well now but his method and process are impressive. I enjoyed his causal proof of God in the Third Meditation and it was exciting to read the famous cogito argument in the Second Meditation. I am glad to have done a close reading of Descartes to strengthen my foundations in intellectual history.

[Graham Blanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good clean philosophy

[Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ideas of the Cartesian body are fascinating and abstract. Enjoyed this with several glasses of wine.

[Judy]

René Descartes was born in March 31, 1596 in Touraine. "His theological views, as later modified to meet the requirements of his own new physics, are in the main a variation on those of Aquinas." p.v
"There is a difference between reading philosophers and being ourselves philosophers. Arriving at our own judgements is science, learning about others is history." p.9 "My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general to habituate myself in belief that save our thoughts there is nothing completely in my power...." p. 113 "the first principle of the philosophy that I was seeking: 'I think, therefore I am...' " p. 119 "Ego sum, ego existo" p. 183 "God must exist because something is keeping me existing at this very moment. p.208 God is "a substance that is infinite, immutable, independent, all-knowing, all-powerful and by which I myself and everything else, if any such other things there be, have been created." p. 204

[Sov8840]

I have walked corridors lined with mirrors that reflect nothing but absence, each surface a portal to a self I no longer recognize. It is in that labyrinth of vanished identities that I understood how fragile the concept of ‘I’ truly is—a construct endlessly shattered and reassembled by the quiet violence of existence.

[Feanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philosophy + mathematics. Could you wish for more?

[Riley Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big fan of Descartes’s writing style. Not a big fan of the Cartesian Circle or his lackluster explanation for the interaction between mind and body. Cool guy though.

[Flowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good translation of some important essays. Some of the content is more relevant than others. (I'm looking at you, optics!)

[catherine samson]

i am very different from when i started this book and it is barely as a result of the actual writings

[anya · Rating 3 out of 5]

gift from a champs elysees dorm RA @ aup

[dipinder]

I love Descartes and his fuck ass bob

[jules galway]

whatever descartes is boring compared to beauvoir

[Donnie Sutcliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay but what if i just dont think.

[Samantha Puc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never been a huge Descartes fan, but this particular edition of his writings is helpful in that it offers objections and replies, as well as a spectrum (of sorts) as to the topics he wrote about and what those topics mean in the overall scheme of early modern philosophy. This text was assigned in my PHIL580 (Modern Philosophy, Descartes to Kant) course and it set the par for the course very well.

[P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meditations on First Philosophy is a good introduction to modern philosophy and methodological skepticism. The CSM translates the original text clearly, and provides footnotes to further explain Descartes' argumentation. As far as philosophical texts go, Meditations is a relatively simple, personal, and entertaining read. I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in modern philosophy.

[Heather's Mum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je pense, donc je suis.

[Anissa]

how do i download a book

[Abdelrazzaq Awwad · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a Decart fan, this one sums the best of the best, I can read it 10 times more and still enjoy it.

[Oli Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic! One of the key texts of the last millennium and in deed the whole of philosophy - still central to many university philosophy courses.