Against Cartesian Philosophy

Opis książki: Against Cartesian Philosophy

This is the first English translation of the Censura Philosophiae Cartesianae, by Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721), an erudite cleric, teacher, philosopher, and scientist, and one of the most accomplished intellectuals of the age. The Censura is the most comprehensive, unrelenting, and devastating critique of Descartes ever published. Anticipating the issues that have occupied Cartesian scholarship for the past half-century, Huet argues at length that Descartes' philosophy fails on many counts: his methodology of doubting; the reliability of his famous cogito ("I think, therefore I am"); clarity and distinctness as criteria of truth; his proofs for the existence of God; the circularity of Descartes' main argument in the Meditations; and numerous other points. Complete with a long introduction explaining the circumstances, history, and importance of the work, this firstever translation and edition of Huet's Censura brings to light a neglected but important work.