Cartesian Reflections

Cartesian Reflections PDF Author: John Cottingham
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191551635
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
John Cottingham explores central areas of Descartes's rich and wide-ranging philosophical system, including his accounts of thought and language, of freedom and action, of our relationship to the animal domain, and of human morality and the conduct of life. He also examines ways in which his philosophy has been misunderstood. The Cartesian mind-body dualism that is so often attacked is only a part of Descartes's account of what it is to be a thinking, sentient, human creature, and the way he makes the division between the mental and the physical is considerably more subtle, and philosophically more appealing, than is generally assumed. Although Descartes is often considered to be one of the heralds of our modern secular worldview, the 'new' philosophy which he launched retains many links with the ideas of his predecessors, not least in the all-pervasive role it assigns to God (something that is ignored or downplayed by many modern readers); and the character of the Cartesian outlook is multifaceted, sometimes anticipating Enlightenment ideas of human autonomy and independent scientific inquiry, but also sometimes harmonizing with more traditional notions of human nature as created to find fulfilment in harmony with its creator.

Cartesian Reflections

Cartesian Reflections PDF Author: John Cottingham
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191551635
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
John Cottingham explores central areas of Descartes's rich and wide-ranging philosophical system, including his accounts of thought and language, of freedom and action, of our relationship to the animal domain, and of human morality and the conduct of life. He also examines ways in which his philosophy has been misunderstood. The Cartesian mind-body dualism that is so often attacked is only a part of Descartes's account of what it is to be a thinking, sentient, human creature, and the way he makes the division between the mental and the physical is considerably more subtle, and philosophically more appealing, than is generally assumed. Although Descartes is often considered to be one of the heralds of our modern secular worldview, the 'new' philosophy which he launched retains many links with the ideas of his predecessors, not least in the all-pervasive role it assigns to God (something that is ignored or downplayed by many modern readers); and the character of the Cartesian outlook is multifaceted, sometimes anticipating Enlightenment ideas of human autonomy and independent scientific inquiry, but also sometimes harmonizing with more traditional notions of human nature as created to find fulfilment in harmony with its creator.

Pyrrhonian Reflections on Knowledge and Justification

Pyrrhonian Reflections on Knowledge and Justification PDF Author: Robert J. Fogelin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195089871
Category : Justification (Theory of knowledge).
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
This work examines contemporary theories in knowledge and justification. It presents an analysis of ordinary knowledge claims, showing that they are philosophically unproblematical. It then asks whether theories of justification meet the challenges raised by Empiricus' "Outlines of Pyrrhonism."

Cartesian Philosophy and the Flesh

Cartesian Philosophy and the Flesh PDF Author: Frances Gray
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136165312
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Get Book Here

Book Description
How do you know anything is true? What relation is there between my psyche and your psyche, does one exist? Can we doubt everything or are some things indubitable? What does Jung have to say about body and psyche, body and mind? Cartesian Philosophy and the Flesh is an analysis and critique of interpretations of Cartesian philosophy in analytical psychology. It focuses on readings of Descartes that have important implications for understanding Jung, and analytical and existential psychology generally. Frances Gray's book raises questions about the 'place' of the body in a theory of the human psyche and about what kind of psyche, if any, is essential to concepts of human being. Gray claims that the debates around Descartes and metaphysical dualism have been oversimplified and that this has had a profound effect on conceptualizing an on-going relation between psyche and body. The book also explores the relationship between Jung's conception of the phenomenological standpoint and that of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Cartesian Philosophy and Flesh brings together Descartes’ idea of self-interrogation and self-reflection and Jung's project in The Red Book, the practice of spiritual exercises is the underpinning orientation of both men. It recommends similar practices to anyone interested in the truths of their own living. Gray’s book will be of interest to Jung scholars, and those with an interest in Jungian studies, Analytical Psychologists and Philosophers.

Descartes

Descartes PDF Author: Marjorie Grene
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872204041
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
This essential work is made up of eight interrelated essays grouped to elucidate two major themes -- Descartes's role in the dilemma of modern philosophy, and the relation of his thought to that of his contemporaries.

Consciousness in Interaction

Consciousness in Interaction PDF Author: Fabio Paglieri
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027274630
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Get Book Here

Book Description
Consciousness in Interaction is an interdisciplinary collection with contributions from philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and historians of philosophy. It revolves around the idea that consciousness emerges from, and impacts on, our skilled interactions with the natural and social context. Section one discusses how phenomenal consciousness and subjective selfhood are grounded on natural and social interactions, and what role brain activity plays in these phenomena. Section two analyzes how interactions with external objects and other human beings shape our understanding of ourselves, and how consciousness changes social interaction, self-control and emotions. Section three provides historical depth to the volume, by tracing the roots of the contemporary notion of consciousness in early modern philosophy. The book offers interdisciplinary insight on a variety of key topics in consciousness research: as such, it is of particular interest for researchers from philosophy of mind, phenomenology, cognitive and social sciences, and humanities.

Partial Reflections of Radio Waves from the Lower Ionosphere

Partial Reflections of Radio Waves from the Lower Ionosphere PDF Author: D. J. Connolly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ionospheric electron density
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Get Book Here

Book Description
The addition of phase difference measurements to partial reflection experiments is discussed, and some advantages of measuring electron density this way are pointed out. The additional information obtained reduces the requirement for an accurate predetermination of collision frequency. Calculations are also made to estimate the errors expected in partial-reflection experiments due to the assumption of Fresnel reflection and to the neglect of coupling between modes. In both cases, the errors are found to be of the same order as known errors in the measurements due to current instrumental limitations.

Descartes and the Doubting Mind

Descartes and the Doubting Mind PDF Author: James Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 144111310X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book Here

Book Description
Descartes' characterisation of the mind as a 'thinking thing' marks the beginning of modern philosophy of mind. It is also the point of departure for Descartes' own system in which the mind is the first object of knowledge for those who reason in an 'orderly way'. This ground-breaking book shows that the Cartesian mind has been widely misunderstood: typically treated as simply the subject of phenomenal consciousness, ignoring its deeply intellectual character. James Hill argues that this interpretation has gone hand in hand with a misreading of Descartes' method of doubt which treats it as all-inclusive and universal in scope. In fact, the sceptical arguments of the First Meditation aim to lead the mind away from the senses and towards the intellectual 'notions' that the mind has within it, and which are never the subject of doubt. Hill also places Descartes' concept of mind into the wider setting of his science of nature, showing how he wished to reveal a mental subject that would able to comprehend the new physics necessitated by Copernicus' heliocentrism.

Why Believe?

Why Believe? PDF Author: John Cottingham
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 144114305X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Get Book Here

Book Description


Descartes and the First Cartesians

Descartes and the First Cartesians PDF Author: Roger Ariew
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191036048
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
Descartes and the First Cartesians adopts the perspective that we should not approach René Descartes as a solitary thinker, but as a philosopher who constructs a dialogue with his contemporaries, so as to engage them and elements of his society into his philosophical enterprise. Roger Ariew argues that an important aspect of this engagement concerns the endeavor to establish Cartesian philosophy in the Schools, that is, to replace Aristotle as the authority there. Descartes wrote the Principles of Philosophy as something of a rival to Scholastic textbooks, initially conceiving the project as a comparison of his philosophy and that of the Scholastics. Still, what Descartes produced was inadequate for the task. The topics of Scholastic textbooks ranged more broadly than those of Descartes; they usually had quadripartite arrangements mirroring the structure of the collegiate curriculum, divided as they typically were into logic, ethics, physics, and metaphysics. But Descartes produced at best only what could be called a general metaphysics and a partial physics. These deficiencies in the Cartesian program and in its aspiration to replace Scholastic philosophy in the schools caused the Cartesians to rush in to fill the voids. The attempt to publish a Cartesian textbook that would mirror what was taught in the schools began in the 1650s with Jacques Du Roure and culminated in the 1690s with Pierre-Sylvain Régis and Antoine Le Grand. Ariew's original account thus considers the reception of Descartes' work, and establishes the significance of his philosophical enterprise in relation to the textbooks of the first Cartesians and in contrast with late Scholastic textbooks.

Descartes, Malebranche, and the Crisis of Perception

Descartes, Malebranche, and the Crisis of Perception PDF Author: Walter Ott
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192509446
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
The seventeenth century witnesses the demise of two core doctrines in the theory of perception: naïve realism about color, sound, and other sensible qualities and the empirical theory, drawn from Alhacen and Roger Bacon, which underwrote it. This created a problem for seventeenth century philosophers: how is that we use qualities such as color, feel, and sound to locate objects in the world, even though these qualities are not real? Ejecting such sensible qualities from the mind-independent world at once makes for a cleaner ontology, since bodies can now be understood in purely geometrical terms, and spawns a variety of fascinating complications for the philosophy of perception. If sensible qualities are not part of the mind-independent world, just what are they, and what role, if any, do they play in our cognitive economy? We seemingly have to use color to visually experience objects. Do we do so by inferring size, shape, and motion from color? Or is it a purely automatic operation, accomplished by divine decree? This volume traces the debate over perceptual experience in early modern France, covering such figures as Antoine Arnauld, Robert Desgabets, and Pierre-Sylvain Régis alongside their better-known countrymen René Descartes and Nicolas Malebranche.