Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen: The Defense of Reason in Descartes's "Meditations"

by Frankfurt, Harry G.; Goldstein, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9781400828180
• ISBN10: 140082818X
• Copyright: 2008-09-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

In this classic work, best-selling author Harry Frankfurt provides a compelling analysis of the question that not only lies at the heart of Descartes'sMeditations, but also constitutes the central preoccupation of modern philosophy: on what basis can reason claim to provide any justification for the truth of our beliefs?Demons, Dreamers, and Madmenprovides an ingenious account of Descartes's defense of reason against his own famously skeptical doubts that he might be a madman, dreaming, or, worse yet, deceived by an evil demon into believing falsely. Frankfurt's masterful and imaginative reading of Descartes's seminal work not only stands the test of time; one imagines Descartes himself nodding in agreement.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface to the Princeton Edition	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
The First Meditation
Introduction	p. 3
The General Overthrow of Belief	p. 19
The Criterion of Doubt	p. 32
The Perception of the Physical World	p. 43
The Strategy of the First Meditation	p. 60
Simple and Universal Things	p. 75
Mathematics in the First Meditation	p. 84
Mathematics and the Omnipotent Deceiver	p. 93
Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen	p. 108
Reason And Its Validation Chapter 10: Sum	p. 123
Sum res cogitans	p. 154
Clear and Distinct Perception	p. 175
Objections to Descartes's Rule of Evidence	p. 200
Memory and Doubt	p. 215
The Validation of Reason	p. 235
Truth and Reality: The Galileo Controversy	p. 250
Index	p. 257
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