Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy in Focus (Philosophers in Focus)

233 Pages·1993·0.62 MB·English

by  Stanley Tweyman

RENE DESCARTES
MEDITATIONS
ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY
in focus

This volume contains the excellent and popular Elizabeth S. Haldane
and G.R.T.Ross translation of René Descartes’ Meditations on First
Philosophy, and a portion of the Replies to Objections II in which
Descartes discusses how the method employed in the Meditations,
which he calls “analysis,” differs from the method of “synthesis”
employed by the geometer.
In the Editor’s Introduction, Stanley Tweyman provides a fresh
and detailed discussion of the relationship between Descartes’ Rules
for the Direction of the Mind and the method of ‘analysis’, insofar
as each has application to the Meditations. The six critical papers
which Professor Tweyman has drawn together in this book present a
broad and exegetical commentary on the Meditations and give an
indication of the diversity of scholarly opinion which exists on the
topic of method in Descartes’ philosophy. An extensive bibliography
is also included.
Stanley Tweyman is Professor of Philosophy at York University,
Toronto.
ROUTLEDGE PHILOSOPHERS
IN FOCUS SERIES
Series editor: Stanley Tweyman
York University, Toronto
ARISTOTLE’S DE ANIMA IN FOCUS
Edited by Michael Durrant
GEORGE BERKELEY: ALCIPHRON IN FOCUS
Edited by David Berman
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN FOCUS
Edited by Hugo Adam Bedau
GODEL’S THEOREM IN FOCUS
Edited by S.G.Shanker
DAVID HUME: DIALOGUES CONCERNING
NATURAL RELIGION IN FOCUS
Edited by Stanley Tweyman
WILLIAM JAMES: PRAGMATISM IN FOCUS
Edited by Doris Olin
JOHN LOCKE: LETTER CONCERNING TOLERATION
IN FOCUS
Edited by John Horton and Susan Mendus
J.S.MILL: ON LIBERTY IN FOCUS
Edited by John Gray and G.W.Smith
RENE DESCARTES
MEDITATIONS ON
FIRST PHILOSOPHY
in focus
Edited and with an introduction by
Stanley Tweyman

London and New York
First published 1993
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Selection and editorial matter © 1993 Stanley Tweyman; each article ©
respective contributor
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Descartes, René, 1596–1650.
[Meditationes de prima philosophia. English]
Meditations on first philosophy/René Descartes: edited and with an
introduction by Stanley Tweyman.
(Routledge philosophers in focus series)
“Contains the excellent and popular Elizabeth S.Haldane and
G.R.T.Ross translation.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. First philosophy—Early works to 1800. 2. God—Proof,
Ontological—Early works to 1800. 3. Methodology. 4. Knowledge,
Theory of. 5. Descartes, René, 1596–1650—Views on methodology.
6. Methodology. I. Tweyman, Stanley. II. Haldane, Elizabeth Sanderson,
1862–1937. III. Ross, G.R.T. (George Robert
Thomson) IV. title. V. Series.
B1853.E5H44 1993
194–dc20 92–47345 CIP

ISBN 0-203-41762-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-72586-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-07706-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-07707-9 (pbk)
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
INTRODUCTION 1
Stanley Tweyman
MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY 34
Letter of dedication 34
Preface to the reader 38
Synopsis of the six following Meditations 41
I Of the things which may be brought within the sphere
of the doubtful 45
II Of the nature of the human mind; and that it is more
easily known than the body 50
III Of God: that He exists 58
IV Of the true and the false 72
V Of the essence of material things, and, again, of God,
that He exists 80
VI Of the existence of material things, and of the real
distinction between the soul and body of man 86
EXCERPT FROM REPLIES TO OBJECTIONS II 101
DESCARTES’ USE OF “DEMONSTRATION”
AND “DEDUCTION” 105
Desmond M.Clarke
A DISCOURSE ON DESCARTES’ METHOD 118
Jaakko Hintikka
A POINT OF ORDER: ANALYSIS, SYNTHESIS,
AND DESCARTES’ PRINCIPLES 135
Daniel Garber and Lesley Cohen
v
CONTENTS
PROFESSOR COTTINGHAM AND DESCARTES’
METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS 148
Stanley Tweyman
ANALYSIS IN THE MEDITATIONS: THE QUEST
FOR CLEAR AND DISTINCT IDEAS 159
E.M.Curley
THE ONTOLOGICAL PROOF WITHIN THE ORDER
OF REASONS 185
Georges J.D.Moyal
Selected bibliography 200
Selected index 221
vi
PREFACE

The Meditations was written by Descartes while he was living in
Holland. The first edition, which appeared in Latin, was published
in Paris, as Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in 1641. Descartes
had circulated the manuscript among his friends, in particular Friar
Marin Mersenne, requesting comments and criticisms, and six
“Objections and Replies” appeared in this first edition along with
the six Meditations and introductory material. A seventh set of
Objections and Replies, and a “Letter to P.Dinet” were added to
the second Latin edition (1642), published in Amsterdam. Gassendi,
the author of the Fifth Set of Objections, published his own
Objections and Descartes’ Replies, with the original Meditations
as an appendix, in 1644 as Disquisitio Metaphysica. The first French
edition, which included the Meditations translated by Duc de Luynes
and the first six Objections and Replies translated by Clerselier,
and a “Letter to Clerselier” (written in answer to Gassendi and
originally intended by Descartes as a substitute for the Fifth Set of
Objections) appeared in 1647. Descartes read and revised this
edition, except the Fifth Set of Objections which was later added
by Clerselier. Further Latin editions appeared in the next three years;
the fourth Latin edition (1650) included the Clerselier letter, a
“Letter to Voetius,” “Notae in Programma” and the “Letter to
P.Dinet,” but omitted the Fifth Set of Objections. A second French
edition was published by Clerselier in 1661, in which he corrected
the earlier Duc de Luynes translation (Descartes may have also
seen this new version); it included the preface to the reader, all
seven sets of Objections and Replies, and the letters to Clerselier
and Dinet. A third French edition (by René Fède) appeared in 1673.
The comprehensive Adam and Tannery edition (Paris: Léopold Cerf,
1897) was based upon the second Latin edition, as was the 1911
vii
PREFACE
Haldane and Ross edition (these translators also utilized the second
French edition). The present volume contains a reprint of the
Haldane and Ross translation. Square brackets in the text of the
Meditations indicate that Haldane and Ross provide an alternative
reading from the French text. Minor typographical errors in the
Haldane and Ross edition have been corrected.
Included in this present volume are Descartes’ Dedication to the
faculty of the Sorbonne (where he indicates that questions regarding
God and the soul should be demonstrated by philosophical rather
than theological argument), his “Preface to the Reader” (where
Descartes writes that he would like to see if he can persuade others,
by the same reasons which persuaded him, of certain and evident
knowledge of the truth), and his Synopsis of the Meditations. A
portion of the Replies to Objections II is also reprinted; in this passage,
Descartes speaks of analysis—the method he employs in the
Meditations—and contrasts this method of proof with synthesis, the
method of the geometer. I wish to thank Cambridge University Press
for permission to reprint the text of the Haldane and Ross translation
of the Meditations on First Philosophy and this portion of the Replies
(The Philosophical Works of Descartes, 2 vols, first published 1911;
reprinted with corrections 1931).
This volume also contains six papers that are concerned with
Descartes’ method. Where reference is made in these papers to
Descartes’ Meditations and to reprinted passages from the Replies,
the relevant page number from the present volume is added in square
brackets. An extensive Selected Bibliography is included at the end
of the volume.
The present project has benefited greatly from the advice and
assistance of Beryl Logan. Her love of Descartes’ writings and her
sound philosophic sense are evident throughout this volume.
My efforts in this book, as usual, are dedicated to my parents,
Fay and Dave Tweyman, my wife Barbara, my daughter Justine Susan,
and my brother Martin.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Desmond M.Clarke’s essay, “Descartes’ use of ‘demonstration’ and
‘deduction’” first appeared in Modern Schoolman 54 (May 1977)
and is reprinted by permission of the author and Modern Schoolman.
Jaakko Hintikka’s “A discourse on Descartes’ method” is reprinted
from Descartes: Critical and Interpretive Essays, ed. Michael Hooker
(Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978) by permission
of the author and the publisher. “A point of order: analysis, synthesis,
and Descartes’ Principles,” by Daniel Garber and Lesley Cohen, was
first published in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 64 (1982)
and is reprinted by permission of the authors and Archiv für
Geschichte der Philosophie. Stanley Tweyman’s “Professor
Cottingham and Descartes’ methods of analysis and synthesis” was
presented at the conference celebrating the 350th Anniversary of the
publication of Descartes’ Meditations, in Reading, UK, 3–5 September
1991, organized by Professor John Cottingham. It is a modified
version of an earlier paper, “Descartes’ Second Meditation and
Seventh Principle,” published in Stanley Tweyman, Descartes and
Hume: Selected Topics (Delmar, NY: Caravan Press, 1989). “Analysis
in the Meditations: the quest for clear and distinct ideas,” by
E.M.Curley, is reprinted from Essays on Descartes’ Meditations, ed.
Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1986) by permission of the author and the publisher. Georges
J.D.Moyal’s “The ontological proof within the order of reasons” is
translated from the French, with minor additions and modifications,
by the author and is printed by his permission and that of the Revue
de metaphysique et de morale, where the original version of the article
appeared in 1988.
ix