The Continental Rationalists - escape3400

[pic] The Continental Rationalists
René Descartes
The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (vol. 2)
Introductory material | |
|Desc.: DV2 MFP Contents p. v |
|Contents | PAST MASTERS Preface General Introduction
Chronological table of Descartes' life and works Meditations on First Philosophy
Translator's preface
Dedicatory letter to the Sorbonne
Preface to the reader
Synopsis of the following six Meditations
First Meditation: What can be called into doubt
Second Meditation: The nature of the human mind, and how it is better
known than the body
Third Meditation: The existence of God
Fourth Meditation: Truth and falsity
Fifth Meditation: The essence of material things, and the existence
of God considered a second time
Sixth Meditation: The existence of material things, and the real
distinction between mind and body Desc.: DV2 OBR Contents p. v
Objections and Replies
Translator's preface
First Set of Objections
Author's Replies to the First Set of Objections
Second Set of Objections
Author's Replies to the Second Set of Objections
Third Set of Objections with the Author's Replies
Fourth Set of Objections
Author's Replies to the Fourth Set of Objections
Fifth Set of Objections
Author's Replies to the Fifth Set of Objections
Appendix to the Fifth Set of Objections and Replies
Sixth Set of Objections
Author's Replies to the Sixth Set of Objections
Seventh Set of Objections with the Author's Replies Letter to Father Dinet Desc.: DV2 SFP Contents p. vi
The Search for Truth
Translators' preface
The Search for Truth by means of the Natural Light Desc.: DV2 PAST MASTERS Preface
The first folio of the database contains all abbreviations for the
works which comprise volume 2 of the John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and
Dugald Murdoch translation The Philosophical Writings of Descartes ((c)
1984, Cambridge University Press). Two page numbers identify each folio of
the translation. The first--abbreviated ap.--refers to the page number in
Adam and Tannery. The second--abbreviated p.--refers to the page number in
Cottingham-Stoothoff-Murdoch. | | | |
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| | |Meditations on First Philosophy | | |
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| | |Translator's | | |
| | |Preface | | |
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| | | | |Desc.: DV2 MFP Trans. Pref. p. 1 |
|Meditations on First Philosophy | |Translator's preface | Descartes' most celebrated philosophical work was written in Latin during
the period 1638-40, when the philosopher was living, for the most part, at
Santpoort. This 'corner of north Holland', he wrote to Mersenne on 17 May
1638, was much more suitable for his work than the 'air of Paris' with its
'vast number of inevitable distractions'. The work was completed by April
1640, and was first published in Paris in 1641 by Michel Soly under the
title Meditationes de Prima Philosophiae (Meditations on First Philosophy);
the subtitle adds 'in which are demonstrated the existence of God and the
immortality of the soul'. In earlier correspondence Descartes had referred
to his work as the Metaphysics, but he eventually decided that 'the most
suitable title is Meditations on First Philosophy, because the discussion
is not confined to God and the soul but treats in general of all the first
things to be discovered by philosophizing' (letter to Mersenne, 11 November
1640).
Desc.: DV2 MFP Trans. Pref. p. 1
Descartes was not entirely satisfied with Soly as a publisher, and he
arranged for a second edition of the Meditations to be brought out in
Holland, by the house of Elzevir of Amsterdam. This second edition appeared
in 1642, with a new and more appropriate subtitle, viz. 'in which are
demonstrated the existence of God and the distinction between the human
soul and the body'. The second edition contains a number of minor
corrections to the text +1 (though in practice the sense is seldom
affected), and except where indicated it is this edition that is followed
in the present translation.
Desc.: DV2 MFP Trans. Pref. p. 1
A French translation of the Meditations by Louis-Charles d'Albert,
Duc de Luynes (1620-90) appeared in 1647. This is a tolerably accurate
version which was published with Descartes' approval; Adrien Baillet, in
his biography of Descartes, goes so far as to claim that the philosopher
took advantage of the French edition to 'retouch his original work'.+2 In
fact, however, the French version generally stays fairly close to the
Latin. There are a number of places where phrases in the original are
paraphrased or expanded somewhat, but it is impossible to say which of
these modifications, if any, were directly initiated by Descartes (some are
certainly too clumsy to be his work). There is thus no good case for giving
the French version greater authority than the original Latin text, which we
know that Descartes himself composed; and the present translation therefore
always provides, in the first instance, a direct rendering of the original
Latin. But where expansions or modifications to be found in the French
version offer useful glosses on, or additions to, the original, these are
also translated, but always in diamond brackets, or in footnotes, to avoid
confusion.+1 For details of the Objections and Replies, which were
published together with the Meditations in the 1641 and 1642 editions, see
below, p. 63.
|J.C. |
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| | |Dedicatory letter to the| | |
| | |Sorbonne | | |
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| | | | |Desc.: DV2 MFP Ded. Letter ap. 1 p. 3 |
|[Dedicatory letter to the Sorbonne] | |To those most learned and distinguished men, the Dean and Doctors | |of the sacred Faculty of Theology at Paris, from René Descartes. | I have a very good reason for offering this book to you, and I am confident
that you will have an equally good reason for giving it your protection
once you understand the principle behind my undertaking; so much so, that
my best way of commending it to you will be to tell you briefly of the goal
which I shall be aiming at in the book.
Desc.: DV2 MFP Ded. Letter ap. 2 p. 3
I have always thought that two topics - namely God and the soul - are
prime examples of subjects where demonstrative proofs ought to be given
with the aid of philosophy rather than theology. For us who are believers,
it is enough to accept on faith that the human soul does not die with the
body, and that God exists; but in the case of unbelievers, it seems that
there is no religion, and practically no moral virtue, that they can be
persuaded to adopt until these two truths are proved to them by natural
reason. And since in this life the rewards offered to vice are often
greater than the rewards of virtue, few people would prefer what is right
to what is expedient if they did not fear God or have the expectation of an
after-life. It is of course quite true that we must believe in the
existence of God because it is a doctrine of Holy Scripture, and
conversely, that we must believe Holy Scripture because it comes from God;
for since faith is the gift of God, he who gives us grace to believe other
things can also give us grace to believe that he exists. But this argument
cannot be put to unbelievers because they would judge it to be circular.
Moreover, I have noticed both that you and all other theologians assert
that the existence of God is capable of proof by natural reason, and also
that the inference from Holy Scripture is that the knowledge of God is
easier to acquire than the knowledge we have of many created things - so
easy, indeed, that those who do not acquire it are at fault. This is clear
from a passage in the Book of Wisdom, Chapter 13: 'Howbeit they are not to
be excused; for if their knowledge was so great that they could value this
world, why did they not rather find out the Lord thereof?' And in Romans,
Chapter 1 it is said that they are 'without excuse'. And in the same place,
in the passage 'that which is known of God is manifest in them', we seem to
be told that everything that may be known of God can be demonstrated by
reasoning which has no other source but our own mind. Hence I thought it
was quite proper for me to inquire how this may be, and how God may be more
easily and more certainly known than the things of this world.
Desc.: DV2 MFP Ded. Letter ap. 3 p. 4
As regards the soul, many people have considered that it is not easy
to discover its nature, and some have even had the audacity to assert that,
as far as human reasoning goes, there are persuasive grounds for holding
that the soul dies along with the body and that the opposite view is based
on faith alone. But in its eighth session the Lateran Council held under
Leo X condemned those who take this position,+1 and expressly enjoined
Christian philosophers to refute their arguments and use all their powers
to establish the truth; so I have not hesitated to attempt this task as
well.
Desc.: DV2 MFP Ded. Letter ap. 3 p. 4
In addition, I know that the only reason why many irreligious people
are unwilling to believe that God exists and that the human mind is
distinct from the body is the alleged fact that no one has hitherto