Philosophy Of Descartes Research Articles

Ludwig von Wolzogen and his Objections to Meditationes de prima philosophia

The article presents one of the lesser known treatise produced within the Polish Socinian movement, written by Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen (ca. 1599-1661), under the title Breves in Meditationes Metaphysicas Renati Cartesii annotationes [Brief Notes on the Metaphysical Meditations of Rene Descartes]. It appeared in print in 1657 in Amsterdam and was ten years later reprinted in the series Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum. In its entirety, the text is intended as a polemic against Descartes's views and written as a detailed commentary on the Meditationes de prima philosophia. Here I intend to demonstrate that Wolzogen's treatise deserves a close scrutiny. First of all, it considerably contributes to our knowledge on the 17th century disputes around the Meditations on First Philosophy. Second, it represents the first substantive and fairly extensive discussion of Descartes's philosophy to appear in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Third, it is a treatise issued from the milieu of the Polish Socinians (the Polish Brethren) that has been recognized by recent research as having exerted a non-negligible influence upon the development of the progressive European thought of the period, both in the domain of theology and philosophy.

The Development and Manifestations of Fallibilism in the Epistemology of Descartes and Hume

The landscape of the modern Western philosophy, particularly within the domain of epistemological inquiry, has been profoundly influenced by the seminal contributions of the encyclopedic thinkers: the French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) and the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776). Their perspectives have redefined numerous epistemological challenges inherent to both philosophy and science, laying the groundwork for the advancement of novel conceptual and methodological frameworks to address these challenges. Despite the marked differences between their epistemological frameworks, the philosophies of Descartes and Hume share several significant points of convergence that are particularly relevant to general fallibilism. For Descartes, the path to effective knowledge and the apprehension of truth is primarily forged through reason, emphasizing the understanding and application of its most fundamental principles and laws. Conversely, Hume posits that the foundation of epistemology rests upon experience and direct observation.

Madame de Sevigné i król Jan III Sobieski – mistrzyni i mistrz epistolografii francuskiej i polskiej XVII w.

Madame de Sévignéand King John III Sobieski –the masters of 17th century French and Polish epistolography Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marchionesse de Sévigné (1626–1696) and John Sobieski (1629–1696) lived during almost the same period of time. The marchioness was three years older, they died in the same year. Lady de Sévigné became a famous epistologra- pher already during her life and shortly after she died. Sobieski’s letters got published only in the 19th c. and their literary value was underlined for the first time by a renown translator of French literature, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, who compared the king’s letters with those of madame de Sévigné. What the marchioness’s and the king’s letters have in common is that these were all private letters to their closest and beloved ones -marchioness’s to her daughter, lady de Grignan and Sobieski’s to his wife, Maria Kazimiera d’Arquien. Due to the distance and longing, a uniquely inspiring epistolography was created. There are of course a lot of differences between their letters, however a number of common threads may be noticed. Many times did lady de Sévigné and Sobieski express a strong belief that their feelings towards the addressees are rare and extremely strong. Similarly, they considered them to possess exceptional traits, not only physical beauty but also outstanding spiritual and mental qualities. In their letters they often articulated their concern about health issues, emphasising that their own physical state depends very much on the condition of their beloved ones. In- spired by Molier’s comedies they knew very well from books and theatres, they would also refer critically to doctors’ opinions. The marchioness was also delighted with her daughter’s knowledge of medical issues and her interest in the philosophy of Descartes, describing it as “cartesienne” and call- ing the philosopher her spiritual father. Although Sobieski’s letters do not contain any philosophical reflection, he is known to be familiar with Cartesianism and to have kept the works of Descartes in his library. What is characteristic for both collections of letters and also unique for this period, is a close and warm relation with children’s world – marchioness’s grandchildren and So- bieski’s children. The grandmother and father used to take a lot of interest in their health, cared about their illnesses, gave advice on intellectual development. In the marchioness’s and the king’s letters some pre-romantic elements are also present which are visible in their attitude towards the nature – e.g. Lady de Sévigné mentioning her night walks under the moonlight and Sobieski contemplating the sunset.

Florentius Schuyl and the origin of the beast-machine controversy

ABSTRACT The international debate on the animal machine was initiated by the preface that the Dutch philosopher and later professor of medicine Florentius Schuyl in 1662 added to his Latin translation of Descartes’ Treatise on Man. Schuyl defended the animal machine in reaction to the vehement attacks, mostly in the vernacular, against the philosophy of Descartes in the Dutch Republic in the 1650s, wherein the theory of the animal machine had become one of the flashpoints. These polemics were part of a power struggle, not a quest for philosophical truth. Schuyl focused on the points that had appeared as controversial in these debates: biblical exegesis, arguments from common sense, and to some extent physiology, but ignored wider philosophical questions. Questions about the soul and human uniqueness came to the fore only when his work was picked up in a new context, the international republic of letters. Schuyl's preface is therefore an interesting example of knowledge taking shape by circulation.

COVID-19 and Climate Change: Re-thinking Human and Non-Human in Western Philosophy

The pre-conditions and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are inter-connected with those of climate change, prompting reflection on how to re-think the relations between human and non-human on a changing planet. This essay considers that issue with reference to the contrasts between the philosophies of Descartes and Spinoza, who offered radically different approaches to the conceptualization of human presence in Nature.

«Картезианский платонизм» Генри Мора и его переписка с Р. Декартом (1648–1649 гг.)

The purpose of the article is to study the problem of Descartes’ early influence on the English philosophy of the 17th century. Henry More (1614–1687), a young Cambridge lecturer proved to become later the recognized head of the Cambridge Platonic School. He began teaching R. Descartes’ mechanical philos­ophy at Christ’s College in the mid 40s, and his views appeared to be among the earliest sources of the Cartesians’ spread in Britain. At this time, the main importance for clarifying the nature of More’s “Cartesianism” was his exchange of letters with Descartes. Unfortunately, the letters of the English philosopher are only partially known in Russian studies. The article introduces the reader to the historical circumstances of the formation of the Cambridge School and its scientific “Constellations”, the early evolution of H. More’s worldview towards Cartesianism and the emergence of contradictions, which More calls “difficulties in reading Descartes”. In this article, we examine the first of More’s letters to Descartes from a new angle, namely, in connection with More’s own theology of the late 40s – early 50s of the 17th century. The results of the study show the key idea of H. More’s philosophy that is an attempt to synthesize classical Neoplatonism and the philosophy of Descartes.

Сотворил ли Бог окаменелости? К истории одной идеи

The subject of the paper is prochronism, e.g. the teaching which says that the world was created with the appearance of old age. It is shown that the sources of prochronism could be traced to the medieval doctrine of double truth and philosophy of Descartes, who suggested that cosmological theories on the origin of the Universe are purely conditional, while in fact the world was instantly created complete and mature. The idea of apparent, but non-existent past gained much credence during the first half of the 19th century, when paleontological and geological discoveries raised a question on how to square the age of the Earth and the life on it with the six days of Genesis. The hypothesis of prochronism was most fully developed in «Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot» (1857), the book by the English naturalist P. Gosse. During the Darwinian time the interest in this doctrine was shown not only by Christian thinkers, but also by secular philosophers and science fiction writers. Elements of prochronism were also present in the writings of Scriptural geologists in the 19th century and their successors, the young earth creationists in the 20th century. The main objections against prochronism are critically considered. According to the most popular of them, if God had made the world appear older that it is, He thus would have deceived people. But from the point of view of prochronism, the creation of traces of never existed past was necessitated by the logic of causality, which required God to actualize all the consequences of historical epochs skipped by Him. The link between prochronism and the problem of pre-human sufferings is outlined. The conclusion is made that this doctrine, despite being counter-intuitive and rather notorious, is intellectually consistent and immune to the criticism.

ARISTOTLE'S COSMOLOGY AND THE MODERN TURN WITH NEWTON AND DESCARTES

This text aims to highlight the foundations of the construction of ancient cosmology and also the modern cosmological "turn" from the physics of Kepler, Galileo and Newton and the philosophy of Descartes. Firstly, we tried to rescue how Aristotle's epistemological project, which is a continuity and a break with Plato, formed the metaphysical basis for a later cosmology of the ancient Greek world. In order to understand nature one must first understand the assumptions of the given definition. In order to understand motion, one must understand that change is the realization of what the object is subjected to, the realization of a possibility. Things that have the power to generate motion are nature and have substance. At the advent of the Modern Age, Newtonian physics and Cartesian philosophy provide the framework for a new cosmological conception coming from Aristotle, a new cosmology of modernity.

Moderni contro moderni: la strategia apologetica del cartesiano Gerdil

Follower of Malebranche, H.S. Gerdil is one of the greatest Eighteenth-Century Catholic philosophers. His Dissertation on the incompatibility of the principles of Descartes and Spinoza (1760), the subject of this article, highlights, thanks to an analytical examination of the texts, the irreconcilability between the two metaphysical perspectives. But the dissertation is not only a defense of Cartesianism against the accusation of closeness to Spinozism made by Leibniz and others – an accusation that for the author is denied by Spinoza’s own Epistolary – it is also a recapitulation of Gerdil’s philosophical apologetics. This is characterized by a skilful use of Descartes’ philosophy to contrast all forms of materialistic monism, whether they derive from Spinoza, Locke or Leibniz. Against these philosophies Gerdil does not use the Aristotelian scholasticism but the philosophy of Descartes, considered the true champion of Modern philosophy. By clearly separating Descartes from Spinoza, Gerdil also constructs a narrative of philosophical modernity different from the one made by Voltaire in the Lettres philosophiques and accepted by the manifestos of the Lumières. The modèle anglais is replaced with the defense of the relevance of Cartesianism and its usefulness in contrasting the Eighteenth-Century materialistic and atheistic philosophies, presented as a corruption of Descartes’ genuine principles, the only ones to guarantee the coexistence of philosophy with religion.

Критика естественнонаучного метода у Хайдеггера

One of the main statements of the work is that in the analysis of development prospects it is necessary to rely on the very roots, the origins of the develop­ment of our civilization, and it is on their philosophical foundations that set the vector of the development of civilization for the future, for many centuries to come. This was pointed out by V.S. Stepin, who, speaking about the philo­sophical foundations of modern science, distinguished the ontological and cate­gorical grids of concepts that are always used when thinking about the future. In many of his works, M. Heidegger spoke about the same, and even more defi­nitely. It is necessary to critically analyze the mathematical method of modern natural science, possible risks and dangers in applying this method to the hu­man world. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the natural science method in the works of Heidegger. This method is associated with the philosophy of Descartes. As Heidegger shows, from the Cartesian concept of the evidence of the “thinking self”, the evidence of mathematical rules follows. These rules are associated with the key concept of measurability, or computability of the physi­cal world. Heidegger connects this computability with the concept of objec­tification. In principle, a person is not objectified, but modern science tries to consider him within the framework of its quantitative method. Heidegger states that such an approach will inevitably lead to the appearance of a human machine. In conclusion, the paper raises the question of the role of quantitative methods in physics and philosophy.

Descartes’ “Lumen Naturale”

The lumen naturale plays an important role in the philosophy of Descartes, particularly in the Meditations. Yet, while its analysis has not been completely neglected, the lumen naturale has hardly received the philosophical examination it deserves. While it is not possible in so short a pa­per to entirely remedy this deficiency, I do hope in this article to provide some insights into Descartes’ understanding of this concept. In this light, I will seek to examine Descartes’ understanding of the lumen naturale in terms of how it functions and its object(s) in order to understand what, if anything, the lumen naturale tells us about the world around us.

The Shapes of Modernity: On the Philosophical Roots of Anthropological Doctrines

While more and more anthropologists are conducting research on and/or in contemporary Western societies, little attempt has been made to characterize modern Western culture as such. The philosophies of Descartes and Leibniz, in particular, may be read as articulating ways of organizing experience that are typical of modernity. These “thought-forms” are still powerful both in everyday experience and in the social sciences, including anthropology. An example is drawn from the anthropology of the emotions; an alternative is suggested based on the heterodox philosophy of Spinoza.

Flaws of the 'cogito ergo sum' and its consequences on Descartes's Philosophy

Flaws of the 'cogito ergo sum' and its consequences on Descartes's Philosophy

Формирование онтологии модерного субъекта: истоки и артикуляция

The subject of the article is the process of forming a new ontological paradigm of the subject – the modern subject as a center of transformative activity aimed at the world (nature) – the object. Today, along with the classical concepts (M. Heidegger, M. Foucault) linking the genesis of the modern type of subject with the philosophy of Descartes, studies (P. Hajdu, A. De Libera), in which his Christian origins and nature are grounded, are gaining more and more in­fluence. The article focuses on the ontological dimension of this genesis, the author shows that in the process of forming the ontology of the Christian paradigm of the subject, three stages can be distinguished: 1) the formation of Christian ideas about God as a subject of being and at the same time a loving Person, whose incarnation removes the barrier between the divine and the hu­man; 2) articulation of ontological concepts in the form of doctrinal principles of Christianity; 3) conceptualization of the doctrine in the text of the Symbol of Faith, which provides a categorical apparatus and a specific vocabulary for ontological discourse of a new type, one of the central meanings of which is the new subject. The process of general secularization of the Christian doctrine in the rational discourses of modern philosophy, primarily in the concept of Descartes and German classical idealism, led to the consolidation of the Chris­tian type of subjectivity for a person as an existential center of a new ontologi­cal paradigm, whose activity turns into a new metaphysical foundation of the world of objects.

Историко-философские аспекты проблемы «нечеловеческого» в социокультурных исследованиях и исследованиях медиа

Тема нечеловеческого не раз возникала в истории философии. Начиная от Аристотеля, впервые проблематизировавшего диалектику Раба и Господина, позже ставшую важной частью гегельянства и марксизма, как «расчеловечивание» и заканчивая такими концепциями современной философии, как социальный конструктивизм. В описанной Аристотелем системе статус собственно человека принадлежит только Господину, в то время как Раб понимается как «орудие». В работе «Физика» Аристотель также поднимает вопрос «нечеловеческого», вводя термин «автоматон», обозначающий случай, действующий извне человека, в отличие от антропного «тихе». Похожим образом «автоматон» объясняется в философии Декарта, где данным термином называется совокупность тел, строго подчинённых механическим законам. Несмотря на то что схожий термин «Киборг», введённый Донной Харауэй, возник в совершенно иной философской традиции, онтологические основания всех этих концепций имеют ряд пересечений, рассмотренных в далее. Автор предпринимает попытку тематизировать понятие «человек» как элемент производства знания и осуществления власти. Многие социальные теоретики, помимо Харауэй, обращали внимание на то, что человек сам по себе так же, как и окружающие его практики, является конструктом. Речь идёт, в первую очередь, о коммуникативных аспектах человеческой жизни, обусловленных дискурсом, что также рассматривается в работе.

Założenia ontologiczne i epistemologiczne sceptycyzmu Montaigne’a

The Ontological and Epistemological Assumptions of Montaigne’s ScepticismMontaigne is widely regarded as one of the most significant sceptics of the 16th century. His most important work, Essays, had a great impact on the thinkers of the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular on the philosophy of Descartes. The article presents Montaigne’s critique of senses and reason as sources of human knowledge. The elements of his scepticism that went beyond the sceptic arguments of ancient thinkers has been emphasized. The negative role of his ontological variabilism in knowing things has been underlined. As a result of the total criticism of the possibilities of human cognition made by the author of the Essays, attention has been paid to the non-sceptical type of the question posed by him: “What do I know?” “Que sais-je?”. The answer to this question led him to fideism in cognition. At the end of the article, an attempt has been made to indicate Montaigne’s main epistemological and metaphysical assumptions that contributed to the problem of cognition. It has also been highlighted in what way the understanding of reason, method, and, above all, self became for Descartes, unlike Montaigne, the foundation of certain knowledge.

В конце концов, мы могли бы быть каннибалами. Декарт и его история самопознания

In the light of contemporary discussions on the European philosophy as an instrument of colonial domination, the necessity of redefinition and redescription of the history of philosophy is beyond any doubt. A brief review of the historiography on modern philosophy shows that the most typical manner to present it is still to find some inner logic that would determine the appearance and development of the particular theories (Cartesian, or Kantian, etc.), without any reference to the external, that is historical, social, cultural etc., circumstances. Mean­while, from the Latin American point of view, which the author of the article takes as a starting point in this paper, the “discovery” of America – or the “invention” of America (Edmundo O’Gor­man) – was one of the most important factors in the latter history of European philosophy, which exerted influence on a number of concepts including the pattern of rationality, subjectivity, modernity etc. In this paper the author focuses on the philosophy of Descartes and re-thinks it from this history-oriented approach. While doing this, the author also tries to avoid a new form of exaggeration: turning Descartes into a theoretician of colonialism. For example, in the very center of Cartesian project of the self one can find the unavoidable doubt that can be covered only by the act of narration in which the self-conscious individual subject constitutes itself. Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum” can be interpreted, thus, not so much as ego conquiro (as it is often presented by Enrique Dussel and his continuators), but rather as a manifestation of the total loss of certainty which can not be restituted in a dialectical, but only practical way. This internal ambivalence of the Cartesian philosophy is, the author concludes, the actual trace of the impact of the discovery of America on his thought.

MODERNIDADE E ALIENAÇÃO DO MUNDO EM HANNAH ARENDT

Este artigo apresenta certos aspectos da crítica à modernidade feita por Hannah Arendt. O percurso se baseia na exposição das princi-pais razões pelas quais a autora afirma que a característica fundamental da era moderna é a alienação do mundo. Esta alienação tem sua origem no descobrimento da América, na Reforma protestante e, sobretudo, no par formado pela invenção do telescópio e a filosofia de Descartes. De-pois de indicar os tipos de alienação do mundo correspondentes a cada um destes eventos, com destaque para o papel da ciência neste proces-so, apresenta-se certos desdobramentos contemporâneos desta alienação que talvez permitam avançar a hipótese de que, de um ponto de vista arendtiano, a ideia de hipermodernidade é mais pertinente que a de pós-modernidade.

Ernst von Aster ve Çağdaş Felsefe Ders Notları

This study is composed of short biographic information about Ernst Von Aster, 20th Century German historian of philosophy, and the lecture notes about “Contemporary Philosophy” that is given by him at Istanbul University Faculty of Literature Philosophy Department in the 1943-1944 academic period. The text which is the lecture notes taken by Cahit Tanyol, a student at the Philosophy Department in the above-mentioned period, in Ottoman Turkish has been translated into Latin alphabet and made ready to be published. Lecture notes are started with the Descartes philosophy, especially his existence approach. Then the views of Descartes and Newton about universe and mechanics are compared. Right after the relations between Newton physics and Kant philosophy are examined. Subsequently, Kant metaphysics and the philosophy of Brentano are compared with each other. After the comparison between Neo-Kantianism and Schelling, the relation between Kant and Husserl is examined. On the other hand, time and space in the Heidegger’s ontology are dealt with. Also, the existing approach in Descartes and Heidegger is investigated. Lastly, Vitalism of Hans Driesch and Spiritualism of Bergson are dealt with. The lecture notes end with the New Positivism after comparison is made between evolution approaches of Bergson and Darwin.

Earth Systems Thinking: Global Consumerism, Climate Change, and the Spiritual Value of the Earth

In this paper we consider the root cause of climate change to be the industrial waste heat by product of increasing global consumption. The embodied energy associated with the conversion of Earth’s resources into consumer goods has largely been driven by fossil fuel based energy. Using available data, we show how a) the rate of annual CO2 emissions to the atmosphere is increasing, b) the land+sea temperature anomaly index is increasing, particularly the last 3 years, c) the rate of heat addition to the world’s oceans is also accelerating as this is in direct response to a globally increasing consumption per capita. In short, all of our human induced rates related to consumption are accelerating with increasingly severe consequences to the Earth system that maintains us. This is occurring amidst the reality that humans are in a necessary physical partnership with nature. Despite this, many human cultures have pursued dominance over the Earth’s resources. This dominance is asserted by the mechanical philosophy of Descartes. Under this world view, the Earth is just a (soul-less) machine and man is distinct from nature and therefore entitled to dominate it; the Earth has no spiritual value. So this gives us license to dig up the planet to create the escalating distribution of products to global consumers and this is exactly what can be verified from the data. We refer to this as the business as usual trajectory. To correct this course trajectory, we propose two avenues: a) extend the concept and legality of the Public Trust Doctrine to all of Nature’s resources so that current generations have an obligation to ensure the future generations can same similar access to these resources, b) adopt a systems thinking approach that prioritizes human equity, dignity, environmental justice and environmental health over escalating global GDP. In short, global justice should be our priority, not global profit. From the systems thinking viewpoint, the Earth is not a market commodity subject to resource exhaustion, it is rather a sacred equilibrium system for the welfare of all.