Descartes : an analytical and historical introduction / Georges Dicker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dicker, Georges, 1942- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Descartes, René.

First philosophy.

God--Proof, Ontological.

God.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Methodology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 344 pages)

Edition:

2nd ed.

Other Title:

Analytical and historical introduction

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2013]

Language Note:

English

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 entree 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 oth

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Meditation I and the Method of Doubt

1. Descartes's Goal

2. Cartesian Doubt

3. Is The Cartesian Doubt Self-Refuting?

3.1. Deceptiveness of the Senses

3.2. Dream Argument

3.3. Deceiver Argument

2. Meditation II: The Cogito and the Self

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

2. Certainty Of One's Own Thoughts

3. Problem For The Cogito

4. Substance Theory

5. Reconstruction Of The Cogito Based On The Substance Theory

6. Critical Discussion Of The Reconstructed Cogito

6.1. Substance Theory and the Argument from Change

6.2. Corollary

6.3. Assumption That Thoughts Are Properties

6.4. Inference to "I Exist"

7. Defense Of The Unreconstructed COGITO

8. Does The Unreconstructed COGITO Require An Additional Premise?

9. Descartes's Conception Of The Self

10. Cartesian Dualism

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

1. Descartes's Criterion Of Truth

2. Project Of Meditation III

3. From The Idea Of God To God

3.1. Nature of Ideas

3.2. Objective Reality and Formal Reality

3.3. Core Argument

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

4. Criticisms Of Descartes's Central Argument In Meditation III

4.1. Subargument

4.1.1. Precontainment Principle

4.1.2. Degrees of Reality

4.1.3. Justifying the Causal Maxim

4.2. Problem of the Cartesian Circle

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

4.2.2. General Rule Defense

4.2.3. Radical Doubt of Reason and the Creation of the Eternal Truths

4.2.4. Validation of Reason

4.3. Final Criticism of the Core Argument

4. Meditation IV: Error, Freedom, and Evil

1. Issues Of The Fourth Meditation

2. Error And The Will

3. Some Possible Objections

3.1. Assenting and Deciding to Believe

3.2. Irresistibility and Freedom

4. Coherence Of Cartesian Freedom

5. Descartes's Troubling Letter To Mesland

6. Error And Evil

6.1. Problem of Evil

6.2. Cartesian Theodicy

6.3. Some Critical Reflections

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

1. Descartes's Ontological Argument

2. Critique Of The Ontological Argument

2.1. Gaunilo's Objection

2.2. Kant's Objection

2.3. Further Consideration of Kant's Objection

2.4. Caterus's Objection

3. Some Implications For Descartes's System

6. Meditation VI: Dualism and the Material World

1. Scope Of Meditation VI

2. Descartes's Proof Of The Real Distinction Between Mind And Body

3. Descartes's Proof Of The Material World

4. Descartes On The Nature Of The Material World

4.1. Primary and Secondary Qualities

4.2. Matter, Space, and Solidity

4.3. Bodies as Substances versus Bodies as Modes of Substance

5. Dualism And The Problem Of Interaction

6. Assessment Of Cartesian Dualism.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-026745-3

1-299-45224-8

0-19-970160-1

OCLC:

836848803