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Descartes' The World offers the most comprehensive vision of the nature of the world since Aristotle, and is crucial for an understanding of his later writings, in particular the Meditations and Principles of Philosophy. Above all, it provides an insight into how Descartes conceived of natural philosophy before he started to reformulate his doctrines in terms of a sceptically driven epistemology. Of its two parts, the Treatise on Light introduced the first comprehensive, quantitative version of a mechanistic natural philosophy, supplying a theory of matter, a physical optics, and a cosmology. The Treatise on Man provided the first comprehensive mechanist physiology. This volume also includes translations of material important for an understanding of the work: related sections from the Dioptrics and the Meteors, and an English translation of the complete text of The Description of the Human Body.

A superb text for teaching the philosophy of Descartes, this volume includes all his major works in their entirety, important selections from his lesser known writings, and key selections from his philosophical correspondence. The result is an anthology that enables the reader to understand the development of Descartes’s thought over his lifetime. Includes a biographical Introduction, chronology, bibliography, and index.

Descartes's Principles 0. / Philosophy is his longest and most ambitious work; it is the only work in which he attempted to actually deduce scientific knowledge from Cartesian metaphysics, as he repeatedly claimed was possible. Whatever the success of this attempt, there can be no doubt that it was enormously influential. Cartesian celestial mechanics held sway for well over a century, and some of the best minds of that period, including Leibniz, Malebranche, Euler, and the Bernoullis, attempted to modify and quantify the Cartesian theory of vortices into an acceptable alternative to Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Thus, the Principles is not only of inherent and historical interest philosophically but is also a seminal document in the history of science and of 17th Century thought. Principles of Philosophy was first published in Latin, in 1644. In 1647, a French translation, done by the Abbe Claude Picot and containing a great deal of additional material and a number of alterations in the original text, was published with Descartes's enthusiastic approval. Unlike some English translations of portions of the Principles, this translation uses the Latin text as its primary source; however, a good deal of additional material from Picot's translation has been included. There are several reasons for this. First, there is good evidence that Descartes himself was responsible for some of the additional material, including, of course, the Preface to the French translation.

"Descartes' book on the passions is admirable, and shows that he was a great genius not only in geometry, but also in philosophy." -Blaise Pascal A modern translation of Descartes' famous work "The Passions of the Soul" (Les passions de l'ame). This edition contains a timeline of Descartes' life and works, a glossary of Cartesian terminology, and Afterword by the translator that explains the significance of Descartes' contributions to modern philosophy and science, particularly his method of skepticism and rationalism. This scholarly apparatus nests this work into Descartes' larger body of work and the place of his philosophy into the broader history of western ideology. Descartes' focus on clear, logical reasoning is a hallmark of his philosophy, and his influence on fields such as mathematics and physics is profound, with his work laying the foundation for later scientific advances. This edition also contains the letters between Descartes and Pascal discussing this work, where Pascal urged Descartes to be more public and aggressive in publishing this work. Les Passions de l'âme, Descartes' final published work, represents his mature attempt to reconcile his mechanistic physiology with human emotional experience. Written at the request of Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, with whom he maintained a rich philosophical correspondence, the text presents an innovative analysis of emotions as both bodily and mental phenomena. Through careful examination of how physical states influence our passions and vice versa, Descartes develops a sophisticated theory of mind-body interaction that builds upon, yet complicates, his earlier dualist framework. He identifies six fundamental passions - wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy, and sadness - from which all others derive, analyzing each through both physiological mechanisms and psychological experience. In The Passions, Descartes explores the nature of human emotions in an attempt to provide a mechanistic explanation of how the body and mind interact to produce passions. Descartes argues that passions, or emotions, are not solely the result of the mind, but are influenced by bodily processes. He defines passions as "perceptions, feelings, or emotions of the soul" that are caused, maintained, and intensified by the movement of animal spirits within the body. This physiological component is key to understanding Descartes' theory, as he views the body as a complex machine in which movements and changes in the brain, particularly in a gland he locates at the center (often interpreted as the pineal gland), influence emotions. For Descartes, passions are not purely mental, but arise from the interaction of the body with the mind, and he sees them as necessary to guide human action, although he believes they should be controlled by reason. Descartes' core argument revolves around the distinction between actions of the soul (the will) and passions (perceptions or emotions). Passions are largely passive, resulting from external stimuli that cause changes in the body, and they often occur without direct input from the will. However, Descartes argues that while passions are involuntary, they can be regulated by knowledge and reason. He contends that understanding the physiological causes of passions can help individuals better control them by aligning them with rational thought. Ultimately, Descartes sees passions as neither inherently good nor bad, but potentially useful or harmful, depending on how they are managed. By locating passions in both the body and the mind, Descartes provides a dualistic framework in which emotions bridge the physical and mental realms. What makes The Passions particularly intriguing is how it reveals Descartes wrestling with the practical implications of his mind-body dualism. While maintaining his philosophical commitment to the distinction between mental and physical substances, he presents a remarkably nuanced account of their intimate interaction in emotional life. His descriptions of physiological responses to emotions - changes in heart rate, muscle tension, facial expressions - anticipate modern psychological theories, while his analysis of emotional regulation through rational control reflects both Stoic influence and his own therapeutic aims. The work takes on additional poignancy given its timing - completed just months before his death in Stockholm, it represents his final philosophical statement on the relationship between reason and emotion, mind and body.

"Descartes' interpretation of being and truth first creates the precondition for the possibility of a theory of knowledge or metaphysics of knowledge. Only through Descartes realism is enabled to prove the reality of the external world and to save that which exists in itself." Heidegger, The Time of the World Image A modern translation of Descartes' famous work "Meditations on First Philosophy". This edition contains a timeline of Descartes' life and works, a glossary of Cartesian terminology, and Afterword by the translator that explains the significance of Descartes' contributions to modern philosophy and science, particularly his method of skepticism and rationalism. This scholarly apparatus nests this work into Descartes' larger body of work and the place of his philosophy into the broader history of western ideology. Descartes' focus on clear, logical reasoning is a hallmark of his philosophy, and his influence on fields such as mathematics and physics is profound, with his work laying the foundation for later scientific advances. René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) is one of the most influential works in Western philosophy. In this text, Descartes seeks to establish a foundation for knowledge that is free from doubt, beginning with the method of radical skepticism. His goal is to discover what can be known with absolute certainty. The Meditations consist of six parts, each building on the previous one, and they explore questions of existence, knowledge, and the nature of reality. Moreover, the Meditations addressed fundamental questions about the nature of existence, the mind-body problem, and the existence of God, many of which continue to be relevant in philosophical debates today. Descartes’ work marked a shift away from reliance on tradition and authority towards an emphasis on individual reasoning, critical inquiry, and the scientific method. In the first meditation, Descartes applies radical doubt, questioning the reliability of sensory experience, mathematical truths, and even the existence of the physical world, leaving open the possibility of a powerful deceiver (the "evil demon"). In the second meditation, he arrives at the indubitable truth that while everything else can be doubted, the fact that he is thinking cannot, leading to his famous conclusion: "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). He then distinguishes the mind as a thinking, non-material substance from the body, an extended, material one, introducing the mind-body dualism. In the third meditation, Descartes formulates his argument for the existence of God, positing that the idea of a perfect, infinite being must have originated from such a being (God), since he, a finite and imperfect being, could not have conceived it on his own. The fourth meditation explores why humans make errors, attributing it to the misuse of free will, where judgments are made without sufficient understanding, rather than any flaw in God. In the fifth meditation, Descartes presents another argument for God’s existence, the ontological argument, asserting that the very idea of a perfect being necessarily includes existence. Finally, in the sixth meditation, he concludes that the external world exists, affirming the reality of material objects and the body, since a non-deceptive God would not allow his clear and distinct perceptions to be false, although sensory experience can still be occasionally misleading. This systematic method of doubt and reasoning establishes a secure foundation for scientific and philosophical knowledge.

Often called " The founder of modern philosophy" and the "father of modern mathematics," René Descartes is considered one of the most important and influential thinkers in the history of Western thought, having inspired contemporaries and several generations of later philosophers. Experts affirm that, starting from Descartes, the rationalism of the Modern Age was inaugurated. In this valuable eBook, the reader will be able to learn about Descartes' thought through two of his most important works: " Discourse on the Method" and " Meditations on First Philosophy."

Rene Descartes has been described as the "father" of modern philosophy. This selection of Descartes' writings attempt to answer central questions surrounding self, God, free-will and knowledge, using the science of thought as opposed to received wisdom based on the tenets of faith.

First published in English in 1925, The Geometry of Rene Descartes brings to audiences one of the most revolutionary works in mathematics since Euclid. Descartes changed the field of mathematics with his invetion of analytic geometry. He loved Euclid, because Euclidean geometry offered truth and certainty, and all of its conclusions were drawn from irrefutable axioms. Descartes wanted to have this kind of certainty in all areas of life, and so he sought to answer questions about the real world using algebra combined with geometry. This produced the Cartesian plane, which suddenly allowed equations to be graphed. It was a revolution. In this book, mathematicians can follow a true genius as he explains his mathematical principles and truths. -- from back cover.

Besides his more famous works of philosophy - Discourse on Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, and Principles of Philosophy - Descartes devoted a great deal of time and thought to the study of physiology and anatomy. An account of his activities in 1629 reports that he visited butcher shops on an almost daily basis to study specific animal organs, and he practiced dissection and even vivisection to explore the workings of major organ systems. In the 1630s, he assisted in the dissection of human cadavers - all to satisfy his intense curiosity about how bodies, animal and human, work. The fruits of this research can be found in his Treatise of Man, a work that he decided not to publish for fear of suffering the same fate as Galileo. Consequently, this fascinating treatise did not appear until twelve years after his death. Among its many intriguing features are his detailed descriptions of the nervous system and its interactions with the muscles to create movement in response to stimulus. Though we now know that many of these details are wrong, Descartes' understanding that much of the body functions as a machine was a stroke of genius. He is the first to describe the reflex arc, anticipating Pavlov and the behaviorists by almost 300 years. The idea of the body as a kind of animal machine that functions according to physical laws was an immense advance over the previous scholastic notions based on Aristotle, which merely begged the question of how the various organs of the body work by stating that it is in their nature to perform their specific functions. This is a landmark work that students of history, medicine, biology, and the history of science will find richly rewarding.