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DeSc a rteS Meditations

Descartes Meditations, one of the most influential works in western philosophy, continues to provoke discussion and debate. This vol-ume of original essays by leading established and emerging early modern scholars ranges over all six of the Meditations and explores issues such as skepticism, judgment, causation, the nature of medita-tion and the meditators relation to God, the nature of personhood, Descartes theory of sense perception, and his ideas on the nature of substance. The contributors bring new insights to both central and less-studied topics in the Meditations, and connect the work with the rich historical and intellectual context in which Descartes forged his thought. The resulting volume will appeal to a wide range of scholars of early modern thought.

k a r en det l efsen is associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published art-icles in oxford studies in early Modern Philosophy, Perspectives on science and Philosophy Compass.

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C a MBr IdGe Cr It IC a l GU Ides

titles published in this series:

Hegels Phenomenology of spiritedIted By de a n Moya r a nd MICh a el qUa n te

Mills on LibertyedIt ed By C . l . t en

Kants idea For a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan aimedIted By a Ml Ie ok senBerG rort y a nd Ja Me s sCh MIdt

Kants Groundwork of The Metaphysics of MoralsedIted By Jens t IM Mer M a n nKants Critique of Practical Reason

edIted By a ndr ews r e at h a nd Jens t IM Mer M a n nWittgensteins Philosophical investigations

edIted By a r I f a h MedKierkegaards Concluding Unscientific Postscript

edIt ed By r ICk a n t hon y fUrta kPlatos Republic

edIt ed By M a r k l . MCPher r a nPlatos Laws

edIt ed By Chr IstoPher BoBonIChSpinozas Theological-Political treatise

edIted By y I tzh a k y. Mel a Med a nd MICh a el a . rosen t h a laristotles nichomachean ethics

edIt ed By Jon MIl l erKants Metaphysics of MoralsedIt ed By l a r a den Is

Nietzsches on The Genealogy of MoralityedIt ed By s IMon M ay

Kants observations and RemarksedIted By r ICh a r d V elk l ey a nd sUs a n shel l

augustines City of GodedIt ed By Ja Me s w etz el

Descartes MeditationsedIted By k a r en det l efsen

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Cambridge University Press978-0-521-11160-7- Descartes Meditations: A Critical GuideEdited by Karen DetlefsenFrontmatterMore information

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Spec SD1 Date 26-july

DeSc a rteS

Meditationsa critical Guide

k a r en detlefsenUniversity of Pennsylvania

edIted By

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Cambridge University Press978-0-521-11160-7- Descartes Meditations: A Critical GuideEdited by Karen DetlefsenFrontmatterMore information

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C a M Br I dGe U n I V e r s I t y Pr e s scambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, cape town,

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cambridge University PressThe edinburgh Building, cambridge CB2 8rU, UK

Published in the United States of america by cambridge University Press, New York

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This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written

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a catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataDescartes Meditations : a critical guide / edited by Karen Detlefsen.

p. cm. (cambridge critical guides)Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

I sBn 978-0-521-11160-7 (hardback)1. Descartes, ren, 15961650. Meditationes de prima philosophia.

2. First philosophy. I. Detlefsen, Karen.B1854.d45 2013

194dc232012024502

I sBn 978-0-521-11160-7 Hardback

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this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Cambridge University Press978-0-521-11160-7- Descartes Meditations: A Critical GuideEdited by Karen DetlefsenFrontmatterMore information

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to my mother and father, Joyce and Bill detlefsen

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vii

Contents

List of contributors page ixacknowledgments xidescartes texts xii

Introduction 1k a r en det l efsen

I sk eP t IC IsM 7

1 The skepticism of the First Meditation 9t hoM a s M. l en non a nd M ICh a el w. h ICk son

2 Descartes and content skepticism 25deBor a h Brow n

I I sUBsta nCe a nd C aUse 43

3 Descartes against the materialists: how Descartes confrontation with materialism shaped his metaphysics 45da n Iel G a r Ber

4 Thinking: the nature of Descartes mental substance 64M a rt h a Br a ndt Bolton

5 causation and causal axioms 82ta d M. sCh M a ltz

I I I sensat Ions 101

6 Sensation and knowledge of body in Descartes Meditations 103John C a r r Iero

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Contentsviii 7 Descartes on sensory representation, objective reality,

and material falsity 127G a ry h atf I el d

I V t he hU M a n Be InG 15 1 8 teleology and natures in Descartes Sixth Meditation 153

k a r en det l efsen 9 The role of will in Descartes account of judgment 176

l Il l I a l a nen

10 God and meditation in Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy 200JorGe seC a da

11 cartesian selves 226l Is a sh a PIro

Bibliography 243index 255

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ix

Contributors

l Il l I a l a nen is Professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Uppsala. She is author of descartess Concept of Mind (2003) and editor of Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy (with charlotte Witt, 2004).

M a rt h a Br a ndt Bolton is Professor of Philosophy at rutgers University. She has written on a wide range of early modern philosophers. Her articles include those in studies on Locke: sources, Contemporaries, and Legacy (eds. Sarah Hutton and Paul Shurman), Berkeleys Lasting Legacy: 300 Years Later (eds. t. airaksinen and B. Belfrage), and Companion to Leibniz (ed. Brandon Look).

deBor a h Brow n is associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy, religion, and classics at the University of Queensland. She is author of descartes and the Passionate Mind (cambridge, 2006).

John C a r r Iero is Professor of Philosophy at the University of california, Los angeles. He is author of Between two Worlds: a Reading of descartess Meditations (2009) and co-editor with Janet Broughton of a Companion to descartes (2008).

k a r en det l efsen is associate Professor of Philosophy and education at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published articles in oxford studies in early Modern Philosophy, Perspectives on science and Philosophy Compass.

da n Iel G a r Ber is Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is author of descartes Metaphysical Physics (1992), descartes embodied (cambridge, 2001), Leibniz: Body, substance, Monad (2009), and What Happens after Pascals Wager: Living Faith and Rational Belief: The aquinas Lecture (2009). He is also editor of The Cambridge History of seventeenth-Century Philosophy (with Michael ayers, cambridge, 1998),

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List of contributorsx

Kant and the early Moderns (with Batrice Longuenesse, 2008), and The Mechanization of natural Philosophy (with Sophie roux, forthcoming).

G a ry h atf Ield is the adam Seybert Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of The natural and the normative: Theories of spatial Perception from Kant to Helmholtz (1990), descartes and the Meditations (2003), and Perception and Cognition: essays in the Philosophy of Psychology (2009).

M ICh a el w. h ICk son is assistant Professor of Philosophy at Santa clara University, california. His articles have appeared in journals such as Journal of the History of Philosophy, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Journal of the History of ideas.

t hoM a s M. l ennon is Professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. He is author of The Battle of the Gods and the Giants (1993), Reading Bayle (1999), and The Plain truth: descartes, Huet, and skepticism (2008). He is editor of Cartesian Views: Papers Presented to Richard a. Watson (2003) and The achilles of Rationalist Psychology (with robert J. Stainton, 2010).

ta d M. sChM a ltz is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. He is author of Malebranches Theory of the soul (1996), Radical Cartesianism (cambridge, 2002), and descartes on Causation (2008). He is editor of the Historical dictionary of descartes and Cartesian Philosophy (with roger ariew, Demis Des chene, Douglas Jesseph, and Theo Verbeck, 2003), Receptions of descartes: Cartesianism and anti-Cartesianism in early Modern europe (2005) and integrating History and Philosophy of science: Problems and Prospects (with Seymour Mauskopf, 2012).

JorGe seC a da is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. He is author of Cartesian Metaphysics: The scholastic origins of Modern Philosophy (cambridge, 2000).

l Is a sh a PIro is associate Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. She is the translator and editor of The Correspondence between Princess elisabeth of Bohemia and Ren descartes (2007), and co-editor with Martin Pickav of emotions and Cognitive Life in Medieval and early Modern Philosophy (2012).

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xi

acknowledgments

I would like to thank the contributors to this volume. They all have been wonderfully patient, and I could not have asked for a more pleasurable and stimulating group of scholars with whom to work. Hilary Gaskin, anna Lowe, and Joanna Garbutt at cambridge University Press have been enormously helpful at every stage of this project, and I am grateful for their guidance. as always, tan Kok chor and amalia tan deserve special appreciation for all the joy.

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xii

descartes texts

all references to Descartes texts are by at number, usually followed by cSM(K) number. For example (7: 84, 2: 58) indicates p. 84 of the sev-enth volume of at, followed by the same passage as translated on p. 58 of the second volume of cSM(K). There is variation in citation style among chapters in this volume, and these variants are noted in those chapters.

Descartes, ren. 196476. oeuvres de descartes, 11 vols., ed. c. adam and P. tannery (Paris: J. Vrin).

1967. oeuvres Philosophiques, vol. ii, edited by Ferdinand alqui (Paris: editions Garnier Frres).

1983. Principles of Philosophy, trans. Valentine roger Miller and reese P. Miller (Dordrecht: reidel).

1985a. The Philosophical Writings of descartes, 2 vols., trans. John cottingham, robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch (cambridge University Press).

1985b. The Philosophical Writings of descartes, vol. III, The Correspondence, trans. John cottingham, robert Stoothoff, Dugald Murdoch, and anthony Kenny (cambridge University Press).

2001. discourse on Method, optics, Geometry, and Meteorology, trans. Paul J. Oscamp, revised ed. (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing).

2008. Meditations on First Philosophy with selections from the objections and Replies, ed. and trans. Michael Moriarty (Oxford University Press).

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