Shine
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User ID: 712687
 United States
06/27/2009 10:10 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Meditations on First Philosophy Has anybody read it? I'm thinking about picking it up. [ link to www.amazon.com] I like this review: Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy is one of the few works of philosophy that absolutely every educated person needs to read at least once. This is required reading for anyone interested in philosophy or its history, and honestly I don't see how this work can be ignored by anyone interested in the history of ideas. It's also a work that I'd recommend to anyone who wants to be introduced to philosophy by reading the work of a great philosopher. And don't worry: it shouldn't take you more than an afternoon to read through it. But you can, of course, spend the remainder of your life thinking about the ideas contained in this work.
The Meditations has had an incalculable influence on the history of subsequent philosophical thinking. Indeed, according to nearly every history of philosophy you're likely to come across, this work is where modern philosophy begins. It's not that any of Descartes's arguments are startlingly original--many of them have historical precedents--but that Descartes's work was compelling enough to initiate two research programs in philosophy, namely British empiricism and continental rationalism, and to place certain issues (e.g. the mind-body problem, the plausibility of and responses to skepticism, the ontological argument for the existence of God, etc.) on the philosophical agenda for a long time to come. Moreover, Descartes was capable of posing questions of great intrinsic interest in prose accessible to everyone. So the Meditations is a work of value to both newcomers to philosophy and to those with a great deal of philosophical background.
The First Meditation is Descartes's implementation of his method of doubt. Descartes's aim here is to systematically doubt everything he believes that seems dubitable in any way and thereby to arrive at something that is absolutely certain and indubitable. Here Descartes formulates two very famous skeptical arguments: the dreaming argument and the evil demon argument. The dreaming arguments calls into question my current beliefs about the world by drawing attention to the possibility that I might be dreaming now. Can I know right now that I'm not dreaming? If not, doesn't it seem that I don't know much of anything? The evil demon argument is even more radical in that it focuses my attention on the possibility that almost my entire conception of reality is based on a very general delusion. What if my every experience and all my reasoning results from constant deception by some being with God-like powers? What, if anything, would I know if this were the case? These worries, Descartes thinks, allow him to doubt nearly all his beliefs, and it indeed they may preclude his having any certain knowledge at all.
The rest of the Meditations is Descartes's attempt to find something he can know for certain. Famously, he begins by claiming that he can be certain of his own existence. Even if he's dreaming or being deceived by an all-powerful evil demon, he can be sure that he exists. For he couldn't dream or be deceived unless he existed.
But even if he can be certain of his own existence, how can Descartes move beyond this to knowledge of a world outside his own mind? By appealing to the existence of God. He provides two distinct proofs for the existence of God: one a variant of the ontological argument, which attempts to prove God's existence from an appeal to the very concept of God, and one a type of cosmological argument, which attempts to prove God's existence by appealing to something whose only possible cause is God. Both these arguments, Descartes claims, prove that the world includes an absolutely perfect God. And it is the perfection of God that Descartes to be confident that he can know things beyond his own mind. For God, as a wholly perfect being, wouldn't provide Descartes with intellectual faculties that allow him to go wrong. Consequently, Descartes can be sure that his beliefs are generally correct, provided that he has used his intellectual faculties in the way God intended.
This work also includes a statement of the sort of mind-body dualism with which Descartes is widely associated. Although his arguments for dualism are obscure here, it is fairly easy to explain the central idea. According to Descartes, mind and body are wholly distinct kinds of substance that interact with one another. Mental states aren't a part of the natural world revealed by the sciences, and so, for instance, they are not reducible to certain things going on in a brain. Instead, they're a wholly different type of thing--though a type of thing that is somehow causally connected to a brain.
All of this is material, and a lot more, is covered in roughly sixty pages of text, and it is presented in some of the clearest, most straightforward philosophical prose ever written. Plus, the reader needn't have mastered any arcane jargon or previous work in philosophy to understand Descartes's views. And because it is written as a series of meditations in which Descartes leads us through something like his own process of through about these issues, it makes for relatively easy reading.
This is a serviceable edition of the Meditations and the Discourse for students, and I'm sure it's perfect for the average reader. The translation is readable, and it doesn't seem significantly different from other translations of Descartes that I've read. While there aren't a lot of frills here, there's a very brief account of Descartes's life and a short bibliography. (For more serious students, I'd recommend Cottingham's edition of the Meditations that is published by Cambridge University Press. And Descartes enthusiasts should check out the second volume of the Cambridge Edition of the Philosophical Writings of Descartes, which includes Cottingham's translation of the Meditations along with the entire text of the objections and replies.) |
Andromeda
User ID: 708515
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06/27/2009 10:13 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy Yes it's good. It's a foundational read.
But it's mistaken. Descartes introduces a mind-body split that has influenced Western philosophy and medicine every since. More recently, that split between mind and body is being reversed in medicine.
However, you need to understand Descartes if you're going to read other modern philosophers.
I think you can probably download it for free from the Internet somewhere. |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 711928
 Canada
06/27/2009 10:17 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy It's about the cogito, or prima causa. Immanuel Kant disagreed with the cogito, you should read Kant instead if you want to know what modern philosohy is all about. |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 702785
Canada
06/27/2009 10:18 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy I'm intested in how he talked about the Pineal Gland.. |
Andromeda
User ID: 708515
United States
06/27/2009 10:20 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy It's about the cogito, or prima causa. Immanuel Kant disagreed with the cogito, you should read Kant instead if you want to know what modern philosohy is all about.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 711928Well, yeah. But Kant is less accessible if that would be his first modern philosopher to read. |
Shine (OP)
User ID: 712687
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06/27/2009 10:21 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy I've let myself slip for so long I figured I needed some good material to get myself grounded again. I've noticed quite a few objections to the "proof of God's existence", as well. The philosophy of mind is definitely something I'm interested in, so I'll have to find some other books after this. Thanks! Yes it's good. It's a foundational read.
But it's mistaken. Descartes introduces a mind-body split that has influenced Western philosophy and medicine every since. More recently, that split between mind and body is being reversed in medicine.
However, you need to understand Descartes if you're going to read other modern philosophers.
I think you can probably download it for free from the Internet somewhere.
Quoting: Andromeda |
Shine (OP)
User ID: 712687
United States
06/27/2009 10:29 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy
Not really interested in any particular sort of philosophy, per se. Just trying to brush the dust off of the mind, as it's been sitting for awhile in the "ask me a question" threads. I need to cut that shit out.  Found the book online: [ link to oregonstate.edu] It's about the cogito, or prima causa. Immanuel Kant disagreed with the cogito, you should read Kant instead if you want to know what modern philosohy is all about.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 711928 |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 618285
United States
06/27/2009 10:34 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy it seems that descarte had a limited perspective.
he said "i think therefore i am"
how about:
" I am aware that thoughts occur on a stage within my mind and those thoughts are not mine" ..."therefore I am" |
Whee! 8D (Quebec)
User ID: 712030
Canada
06/27/2009 11:29 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy Shine, this has been an eye opener for me. [ link to stoics.com] (Just the part on the Firmness) Last Edited by Whee! 8D on 06/27/2009 11:30 PMThe world woud be a thousand times better place if more cults existed.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 673558 |
Shine (OP)
User ID: 712687
United States
06/27/2009 11:57 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy
Shine, this has been an eye opener for me. [ link to stoics.com] (Just the part on the Firmness) Wow! I definitely have some reading to do. Thanks, Whee! |
cosmic yo yo
User ID: 699942
United States
06/28/2009 12:20 AM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy  Great post |
MagiChristmas
User ID: 554973
United States
08/16/2009 12:27 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Meditations on First Philosophy Not really interested in any particular sort of philosophy, per se. Just trying to brush the dust off of the mind, as it's been sitting for awhile in the "ask me a question" threads. I need to cut that shit out. Found the book online: [ link to oregonstate.edu] It's about the cogito, or prima causa. Immanuel Kant disagreed with the cogito, you should read Kant instead if you want to know what modern philosohy is all about. You may appreciate Glenn Beck's book strategy.  2nd or 3rd segment of 7 [ link to www.youtube.com] [ link to www.youtube.com] [ link to www.youtube.com] [ link to www.youtube.com] [ link to www.youtube.com] [ link to www.youtube.com] [ link to www.youtube.com] The FUSION of Entertainment & Enlightenment to the 7th degree. :pingu2: MC |
