Rene Descartes - Meditations, Discourse, and Other Works

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a mathematician, a natural scientist, and a speculative metaphysician. Although today most students encounter him in the last of these roles as the author of the Meditations on First Philosophy, his influence on the other disciplines is arguably even more significant. In his Geometry, Descartes proposed a new method of geometric proof that made it possible to describe curves by means of algebraic equations (Cartesian coordinates). In his World or Treatise on Light, Descartes envisioned a universe governed entirely by mathematics, reducing physical phenomena to geometric explanations. In his writings on living things, Descartes proposed a notion of living organisms as machines governed by the same mathematical principles as his physics.

By the time that Descartes turned to metaphysics, he had embraced the method of geometric proof—deduction from seemingly indisputable basic premises—as the universal method for the discovery of knowledge. Just as the geometer begins by finding the most fundamental properties of lines, and by using these to deduce the properties of the most basic shapes—circles, triangles, squares—so Descartes attempts in his Meditations to set aside all beliefs that are capable of doubt and to deduce from the remaining residue of certainty a total view of the world and the soul. In attempting this, Descartes would raise philosophical issues that have remained salient for four centuries.

We will read Descartes’ Discourse on Method, the earliest statement of his methodical understanding of knowledge, along with the first seven chapters of his World or Treatise on Light, where he articulates his view of a purely mathematical world, stripped of all sensible qualities. We will read the Meditations, where he sets out the foundation of his metaphysical system in six days of reflection. Descartes circulated the Meditations among his friends and published seven sets of objections with his own replies attached. To get a sense of Descartes’ engagement with other thinkers of his time, we will read the third objections by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the fifth objections by French philosopher Pierre Gassendi.

Required Readings:
These are available in various translations.
Discourse on Method
The World or Discourse on Light, Chapters 1-7
Meditations on First Philosophy
Third objections and Replies (Hobbes) and fifth objections and replies (Gassendi)

Additional readings:
IEP article
SEP article
SEP article on Descartes’ Mathematics
The Geometry