Descartes : an analytical and historical introduction / Georges Dicker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dicker, Georges, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Descartes, René, 1596-1650. Meditationes de prima philosophia.

Descartes, René.

First philosophy.

God--Proof, Ontological.

God.

Methodology.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Physical Description:

xix, 344 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2013]

Summary:

A Solid Grasp of the Main Themes And Arguments of the seventeenth-century philosopher Rene Descartes is essential for understanding modern thought, and a necessary entrée to the work of the Empiricists and Immanuel Kant. It is also crucial to the study of contemporary epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. This new edition of Georges Dicker's commentary on Descartes's masterpiece, Meditations on First Philosophy, features a new chapter on the Fourth Meditation and improved treatments of the famous cogito ergo sum and the notorious problem of the Cartesian Circle, among numerous other improvements and updates. Clear and accessible, it serves as an introduction to Descartes's ideas for undergraduates and as a sophisticated companion to his Meditations for advanced readers. The volume provides a thorough discussion of several basic issues of epistemology and metaphysics elicited from the main themes and arguments of the Meditations. It also delves into the work's historical background and critical reception. Dicker offers his own assessments of the Cartesian doubt, the cogito, the causal and onto-logical proofs of God's existence, Cartesian freedom and theodicy, Cartesian Dualism, and Descartes's views about the existence and nature of the material world. The commentary also incorporates a wealth of recent Descartes scholarship, and inculcates-but does not presuppose-knowledge of the methods of contemporary analytic philosophy. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Meditation I and the Method of Doubt 3

1 Descartes's Goal 3

2 The Cartesian Doubt 10

3 Is The Cartesian Doubt Self-Refuting? 27

3.1 The Deceptiveness of the Senses 27

3.2 The Dream Argument 30

3.3 The Deceiver Argument 32

2 Meditation II: The Cogito and the Self 39

1 Descartes's "I Am Thinking, Therefore I Exist" 39

2 The Certainty of One's Own Thoughts 42

3 A Problem for the Cogito 47

4 The Substance Theory 49

5 A Reconstruction of the Cogito Based on the Substance Theory 54

6 Critical Discussion of the Reconstructed Cogito 58

6.1 The Substance Theory and the Argument from Change 58

6.2 The Corollary 64

6.3 The Assumption That Thoughts Are Properties 68

6.4 The Inference to "I Exist" 69

7 A Defense of the Unreconstructed Cogito 71

8 Does the Unreconstructed Cogito Require an Additional Premise? 75

9 Descartes's Conception of the Self 80

10 Cartesian Dualism 86

3 Meditation III: The Criterion of Truth and the Existence of God 91

1 Descartes's Criterion of Truth 91

2 The Project of Meditation III 98

3 From the Idea of God to God 100

3.1 The Nature of Ideas 101

3.2 Objective Reality and Formal Reality 105

3.3 The Core Argument 110

3.4 The Central Argument of Meditation III: The Subargument, the Core Argument, and the Sequel 114

4 Criticisms of Descartes's Central Argument in Meditation III 129

4.1 The Subargument 130

4.1.1 The Precontainment Prindple 130

4.1.2 Degrees of Reality 137

4.1.3 Justifying the Causal Maxim 139

4.2 The Problem of the Cartesian Circle 144

4.2.1 The Restriction of the Doubt to Past Clear and Distinct Perceptions Defense 147

4.2.2 The General Rule Defense 153

4.2.3 The Radical Doubt of Reason and the Creation of the Eternal Truths 164

4.2.4 The Validation of Reason 170

4.3 A Final Criticism of the Core Argument 176

4 Meditation IV: Error, Freedom, and Evil 181

1 The Issues of the Fourth Meditation 181

2 Error and the Will 181

3 Some Possible Objections 184

3.1 Assenting and Deciding to Believe 184

3.2 Irresistibility and Freedom 186

4 The Coherence of Cartesian Freedom 190

5 Descartes's Troubling Letter to Mesland 197

6 Error and Evil 205

6.1 The Problem of Evil 205

6.2 Cartesian Theodicy 214

6.3 Some Critical Reflections 217

5 Meditation V: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God 221

1 Descartes's Ontological Argument 221

2 Critique of the Ontological Argument 228

2.1 Gaunilo's Objection 229

2.2 Kant's Objection 231

2.3 Further Consideration of Kant's Objection 237

2.4 Caterus's Objection 242

3 Some Implications for Descartes's System 254

6 Meditation VI: Dualism and the Material World 257

1 The Scope of Meditation VI 257

2 Descartes's Proof of the Real Distinction Between Mind and Body 258

3 Descartes's Proof of the Material World 274

4 Descartes on the Nature of the Material World 282

4.1 Primary and Secondary Qualities 283

4.2 Matter, Space, and Solidity 292

4.3 Bodies as Substances versus Bodies as Modes of Substance 295

5 Dualism and the Problem of Interaction 301

6 An Assessment of Cartesian Dualism 313.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-333) and index.

ISBN:

9780195380323

0195380320

9780199701605

0199701601

OCLC:

809925961