The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes (1930)

S$42.00

The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes (1930)

S$42.00

Title: The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes

Author: Descartes, John Veitch (trans), Frank Sewall (intro)

Publisher: Tudor Publishing, New York. No date, most probably 1930.

Condition: Hardcover, no dust jacket. Ex-library book in good condition, good reading copy. Library sticker to bottom of spine and back endpapers, library pencil markings on title page. Deckle edges. Text clean, binding tight. 371pp.

SKU: descartes-veitch Categories: ,

René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the ‘Father of Modern Philosophy’, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes’ influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution and has been described as an example of genius.

He is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement “Cogito ergo sum” (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 – written in French but with inclusion of “Cogito ergo sum”) and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 – written in Latin).

Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Discourses on Method
  3. The Meditations
  4. The Principles of Philosophy
  5. Appendix: Reasons which Establish the Existence of God, and the Distinction between the Mind and Body of Man, Disposed in Geometrical Order