Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, 4th Ed.

This new 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. Rene Descartes has often been called the father of modern philosophy, and it is certainly true that his influence has pervaded western thought at least until the present century. The "Discourse" is the exposition of the famous "Method" by which this brilliant mathematician tried to apply mathematical methods to - and thus to discover mathematical certainties in - all fields of human inquiry. Starting from universal doubt he passes, via the celebrated phrase "cogito ergo sum" to the certainty of the existence of God and hence of the reality of created nature. This edition also includes the "Meditations" and the letter-preface to "The Principles of Philosophy".

This collection includes essays by; William T. Bluhm, Lou Massa, Thomas Payel, John F. Post, Stephen Toulmin and David Weissman.

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Contains English translations of Descartes' 1637 treatise