Meditationes de prima philosophia = Meditationen über die Erste Philosophie : lateinisch/deutsch

Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy, published in Latin in 1641, is one of the most widely studied philosophical texts of all time, and inaugurates many of the key themes that have remained central to philosophy ever since. In his original Latin text Descartes expresses himself with great lucidity and elegance, and there is enormous interest, even for those who are not fluent in Latin, in seeing how the famous concepts and arguments of his great masterpiece unfold in the original language. John Cottingham's acclaimed English translation of the work is presented here in a facing-page edition alongside the original Latin text. Students of classical philosophy have long had the benefit of dual-language editions, and the availability of such a resource for the canonical works of the early-modern period is long overdue. This volume now makes available, in an invaluable dual-language format, one of the most seminal texts of Western philosophy.… (more)

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LibraryThing member jpsnow

It's a classic but... a tiresome and rather flawed attempt to prove the existence of god and everything else. If nothing else, it seems to show the powerful influence of the church's recent treatment of Descarte's contemporaries.

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LibraryThing member gbill

Descartes is of course famous for “Cogito Ergo Sum”, or “I think, therefore I am”, an argument which is laid out in these meditations … and OK, if one needs to spend the mental energy to prove one exists, fine. Hats off to the man for thinking deep thoughts and putting quill to parchment

in 1641. But he then builds upon this to “prove” that God exists. I won’t recreate that argument here because it’s ridiculous, and a good example of how a philosopher can wrap himself up too much in a pseudo-intellectual argument to reach his desired conclusion, whatever it might be. Of course the Meditations have value and a solid place in the history of Western Philosophy, but I’d recommend turning to the philosophy of the East instead. I got very little out of these writings.

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LibraryThing member Audacity88

Well, it was cool until he ended up "deducing" the existence of God.

LibraryThing member Sharon.Flesher

Read for an on-line philosophy course. I doubt I would have made it through the first few pages without the encouragement of the professor, and I preferred his summary of the book to the actual book.

LibraryThing member jculkin

I don't doubt it is an important work in the development of 'The Great Conversation', but I rate a book according to how much I get out of it, and how much I enjoy it. It seems like a bit of a let down after reading Discourse on Method: but I suppose I should have taken the last 2 parts of that

book (5 and 6) as a warning of what was to come. The first two meditations (again, of 6) to me are an echo of the Discourse; longer and less clear.

There are good lines here and there, but after proving his own existence he goes off the 'right path'as he calls it, with his argument for god: I couldn't think of a perfect being unless there was one already. Simon Blackburn (Think, 1999) provides an excuse for Descartes, suggeesting that the idea of cause and effect have changed considerably since then: apparently at that point in history, whatever causes, neccesarily passes something on, like a baton in a relay race, to the thing it causes. I half-heartedly continued into meditation 4 onwards, but I began to skip sections once I found "God" coming up every two or three lines. A key point in our history, but not so accessible today. Discourse is lovely though!

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LibraryThing member DanielSTJ

Logical and critical, this book is a good primer for those interested in Descartes and further philosophy. I recommend it to those seeking knowledge, logic, and sagacity.

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