Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies

by René Descartes , Edited by John Cottingham , Introduction by Bernard Williams

• ISBN13: 9780521558181
• ISBN10: 0521558182
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-04-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Introductory essay	vii
Bernard Williams
General introduction	xviii
Chronology	xxxix
Further reading	xli
Note on the text and the translation	xliii
Meditations on First Philosophy	1	(116)
Dedicatory letter to the Sorbonne	3	(3)
Preface to the reader	6	(3)
Synopsis of the following six Meditations	9	(54)
First Meditation: What can be called into doubt	12	(4)
Second Meditation: The nature of the human mind, and how it is better known than the body	16	(8)
Third Meditation: The existence of God	24	(13)
Fourth Meditation: Truth and falsity	37	(7)
Fifth Meditation: The essence of material things, and the existence of God considered a second time	44	(6)
Sixth Meditation: The existence of material things, and the real distinction between mind and body	50	(13)
Selections from the Objections and Replies
On Meditation One
The rejection of previous beliefs	63	(1)
The reliability of the senses	63	(2)
The dreaming argument	65	(1)
Certainty in dreams	66	(2)
On Meditation Two
Cogito ergo sum (`I am thinking, therefore I exist')	68	(1)
Sum res cogitans (`I am a thinking thing')	69	(5)
The nature of thought	74	(2)
The piece of wax	76	(2)
On Meditation Three
Innate ideas	78	(2)
The idea of God	80	(4)
Objective reality	84	(2)
God, author of my existence	86	(4)
On Meditation Four
The cause of error	90	(2)
The indifference of the will	92	(3)
On Meditation Five
Whether God's essence implies his existence	95	(7)
Clear and distinct perception and the `Cartesian Circle'	102	(5)
On Meditation Six
The real distinction between mind and body	107	(10)
Index	117