René Descartes - Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Discourse on method and Meditations on first philosophy / Ren Descartes; edited and introduced by Andrew Bailey; translated by Ian Johnston.

Names: Descartes, Ren, 1596-1650, author. | Bailey, Andrew, 1969- editor. | Johnston, Ian (Ian Courtenay), 1938- translator. | Container of (expression): Descartes, Ren, 1596-1650. Discours de la mthode. English. | Container of (expression): Descartes, Ren, 1596-1650. Meditationes de prima philosophia. English.

Description: Translations of Discours de la mthode and Meditationes de prima philosophia. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200285815 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200285955 | ISBN 9781554815548 (softcover) | ISBN 9781770487840 (PDF) | ISBN 9781460407356 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Methodology. | LCSH: Knowledge, Theory of. | LCSH: ScienceMethodology. | LCSH: First philosophy.

Classification: LCC B1848.E5 J64 2020 | DDC 194dc23

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Who Was Ren Descartes?

Ren Descartes was born in 1596 in a small town nestled below the vineyards of the Loire in western France; at that time the town was called La Haye, but it was later renamed Descartes in his honor. His early life was probably unhappy: he suffered from ill health, his mother died a year after he was born, and he didnt get on well with his father. (When Ren sent hisof Poitiers and studied mathematics and mechanics; then, at 21, he joined first the Dutch army of Prince Maurice of Nassau and then the forces of Maximilian of Bavaria. As a soldier he saw little action, traveling around Europe supported by his familys wealth.

During this period, he resolved

I came to see that the exclusive concern of mathematics is with questions of order or method, and that it is irrelevant whether the measure in question involves numbers, shapes, stars, sounds, or any other object whatsoever. This made me realize that there must be a general science which explains all the points that can be raised concerning order and measure irrespective of subject matter. (from Rules for the Direction of Our Native Intelligence [1628])

This insight led Descartes directly to one of the most significant intellectual innovations of the modern age: the conception of science as the exploration of abstract mathematical descriptions of the world.

It was also during this timein 1619that philosophical system to underpin all human knowledge.

In 1628, at the age of 32, Descartes settled in the Netherlands (at the time the most intellectually vibrant region of Europe), where he lived for most of his remaining life. It was only then that he began sustained work in metaphysics and mathematical physics. His family was wealthy enough that Descartes, who cultivated very modest tastes, and philosophical views, the Principles of Philosophy, which he hoped would become a standard university textbook, replacing the medieval texts used at the time. His last work, published in 1649, was The Passions of the Soul, which attempted to extend his scientific methodology to ethics and psychology.

Descartes never married, but in 1635 he had a daughter, Francine, with a serving woman called Hlne Jans. He made arrangements to care for and educate the girl but she died of scarlet fever at the age of five, a devastating shock for Descartes.

In 1649 Descartes accepted an invitation to visit Stockholm and give philosophical instruction to Queen Christina of Sweden. He was required to give tutorials at the royal palace at five oclock in the morning. Ever since he was a sickly schoolboy, he stayed in bed until 11 a.m., and it is said that the strain of this sudden break in his habits and the harsh Swedish winter caused him to catch pneumonia; he died in February 1650. His dying words are said to have been, mon me, il faut partirmy soul, its time we must leave. His body was returned to France but, apparently, his head was secretly kept in Sweden; in the 1820s a skull bearing the faded inscription Ren Descartes was discovered in Stockholm and is now on display in the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

What Was Descartess Overall Philosophical Project?

Descartes lived at a time when the accumulated beliefs of centuriesassumptions based on religious doctrine, straightforward observation, and common sensewere being gradually but remorselessly stripped away by exciting new discoveries. (The most striking example of this was the evidence mounting against the centuries-old belief that an unmoving Earth is the center of the universe, orbited by the moon, sun, stars, and all the other planets.) In this intellectual climate, Descartes became obsessed by the thought that no lasting scientific progress was possible without a systematic method for sifting through our preconceived assumptions and distinguishing between those that are reliable and those that are false. Descartess central intellectual goal was to develop just such a reliable scientific method, and then to construct a coherent and unified theory of the world and of humankinds place within it. This theory, he hoped, would replace scholasticism, the deeply flawed medieval system of thought based on the science of Aristotle and Christian theology.