Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

by René Descartes, Donald A. Cress (Translator)

Overview

This edition contains Donald Cress's completely revised translation of the Meditations (from the corrected Latin edition) and recent corrections to Discourse on Method, bringing this version even closer to Descartes's original, while maintaining the clear and accessible style of a classic teaching edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603845151
Publisher:	Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/15/1999
Series:	Hackett Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	604,757
File size:	365 KB

About the Author

Donald A. Cress is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Parkside. His translations of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and Discourse on Method are also published by Hackett.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Descartes 7

Translator's Note 16

Introduction to the Discourse 17

Discourse on Method 25

Part One 28

Part Two 34

Part Three 41

Part Four 47

Part Five 53

Part Six v 65

Introduction to the Meditations 77

Meditations on First Philosophy 85

Dedication to the Sorbonne 87

Preface to the Reader 93

Synopsis of the Six Following Meditations 97

First Meditation: Concerning Those Things Which Can Be Called into Doubt 101

Second Meditation: Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind and the Fact that It Is Easier to Know than the Body 106

Third Meditation: Concerning God and the Fact that He Exists 113

Fourth Meditation: Concerning Truth and Falsity 125

Fifth Meditation: Concerning the Essence of Material Things, and, Once Again, Concerning the Fact that God Exists 132

Sixth Meditation: Concerning the Existence of Material Things and the Real Distinction between Mind and Body 138

Index 151

Editorial Reviews

Contains English translations of Descartes' 1637 treatise and a subsequent development of the ideas contained in it, , first published in 1641. Includes a selected bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

Praise for Bailey and Johnston’s Descartes editions:

“Ian Johnston’s new translation of Descartes’s famous Discourse on Method will stand with the best and most readable translations now available in English. For readers coming to Descartes’s work for the first time, Andrew Bailey’s introduction nicely situates the text both philosophically and historically.” — Kurt Smith, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

“Descartes was living and writing at a tumultuous time, and Bailey does a nice job of sketching the intellectual environment into which the Meditations was launched, while pre-emptively warding off a number of common misunderstandings of Descartes’s aims.” — Seth Bordner, University of Alabama

“Ian Johnston’s translations of the Discourse on Method and Meditations are clear and accessible to students while remaining true to the original texts.” — Lisa Shapiro, Simon Fraser University

From the Publisher