Descartes Embodied: Reading Cartesian Philosophy through Cartesian Science

by Daniel Garber

Overview

This volume collects some of the seminal essays on Descartes by Daniel Garber, one of the preeminent scholars of early-modern philosophy. A central theme unifying the volume is the interconnection between Descartes's philosophical and scientific interests, and the extent to which these two sides of the Cartesian program illuminate each other, a question rarely treated in the existing literature. This collection will be a mandatory purchase for any serious student of or professional working in 17th-century philosophy, history of science, or history of ideas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521789738
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/20/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.98(d)
Lexile:	1520L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Historiographical Preliminaries: 1. Does history have a future? Some reflections on Bennett and doing philosophy historically; Part II. Method, Order and Certainty: 2. Descartes and method in 1637; 3. A point of order: analysis, synthesis, and Descartes's Principles; 4. J. B. Morin and the Second Objections; 5. Descartes and experiment in the Discourse and Essays; 6. Descartes on knowledge and certainty; Part III. Mind, Body, and the Laws of Nature: 7. Mind, body, and the laws of nature in Descartes and Leibniz; 8. Understanding interaction: what Descartes should have told Elizabeth; 9. How God causes motion: Descartes, divine sustenance, and occasionalism; 10. Descartes and occasionalism; 11. Semel in Vita: the scientific background to Descartes meditations; 12. Forms and qualities in the Sixth Replies; Part IV. Larger Visions: 13. Descartes, or the cultivation of the intellect; 14. Experiment, community, and the constitution of nature in the seventeenth century.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume is valuable in that it collects in one place essays otherwise not too easy to come by and which together offer a compelling interpretation of Descartes's thought by one of its most distinguished contemporary readers." Review of Metaphysics

"The quality of scholarship and intelligence of the author make for an excellent and highly recommended book for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and advanced scholars." Choice

From the Publisher