The Principles of Philosophy edition by Rene Descartes Politics Social Sciences eBooks
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Principles of Philosophy is a book by Rene Descartes. It is basically a synthesis of the Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy.
It set forth the principles of nature—the Laws of Physics--as Descartes viewed them. Most notably, it set forth the principle that in the absence of external forces, an object's motion will be uniform and in a straight line. Newton borrowed this principle from Descartes and included it in his own Principia; to this day, it is still generally referred to as Newton's First Law of Motion. The book was primarily intended to replace the Aristotelian curriculum then used in French and British Universities. Descartes's use of the word "philosophy" in the title refers to "natural philosophy", which is what science was called at that time.
The Principles of Philosophy edition by Rene Descartes Politics Social Sciences eBooks
Fantastic. A clever and insightful read. One of his great quotes from the book: "In order to examine into the truth, it is necessary once in one’s life to doubt of all things."Product details
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The Principles of Philosophy edition by Rene Descartes Politics Social Sciences eBooks Reviews
This book is the synthesis of all Descartes physics and philosophy theories divided into four parts. The first part focuses on philosophy, the second part general science, while the third and forth parts are a collection of Descartes' specific principles of physics he used to develop his theory of the structure of the universe, the solar system, and the origins of the earth.
Descartes' valuable researches in science and physics have long been appreciated and this book is certainly proof of that value. This book is especially significant because it was written after the Church had condemned Galileo and his theories of cosmology and tried to slowdown or halt the progress of science. Descartes presents very strongly his revolutionary scientific conclusions, but my attention had to be focused on Descartes the philosopher not the scientist.
As a scientist, Descartes elucidated basic laws in physics and science, and he brought that logical, straightforward, scientific approach to philosophy and the question of God's existence.
In Descartes earlier work "Meditations on First Philosophy", he called all of our knowledge into doubt as he stated "If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things". Similarly, in The first section of "Principles of Philosophy", Descartes restates some of his earlier conclusions, not to argue what we certainly don't know, but rather to try and determine what we know for certain
Descartes' famous declaration "Cogito Ergo Sum" which is translated as "I think, therefore I am.", is the first certain truth that Descartes proclaims in Part I of the Principles. This conclusion, "Cogito Ergo Sum", is for Descartes a truth that cannot be called into doubt the fact that we exist. Using only this fact, a few principles of logic, and some innate ideas, Descartes believes he can prove the existence of God
Descartes presents two intriguing arguments for God's existence that can by summarized as follows
1. An ontological argument for God's existence that goes this way Our idea of God is a perfect being, to exist is definitely more perfect than not to exist, and therefore, God must exist.
2. We are all born with the innate idea of God as an infinite being, so this idea must have infinite objective reality. Knowing that there must be as much reality in a cause as in an effect, then there must be as much formal reality in a cause of an idea as there is objective reality in an idea. Based on this kind of reasoning, we have an idea with infinite objective reality, which is the idea of God, then there must be a being with infinite formal reality that caused this idea. That being is God. .With all due respect to Descartes, I can't help but asking here if Descartes or anyone else can prove that belief in God as an infinite being is innate? It seems to me that it is more a learned idea
To spend time exploring the breadth and depth of Descartes' scientific principles and the unyielding logic and order of his philosophy is so fulfilling and enlightening that until we have taken the journey we are, as thinking, questioning human beings, incomplete
Only worth reading if you are a scholar of Descartes or interested in the history of philosophy. Most of it is nonsense. It is interesting how often Descartes dictates to nature how it should behave instead of an employing an experimental method. The 20th century Thomistic philosopher Etienne Gilson wrote his doctoral thesis on the influence of the medievals on Descartes. He certainly could find a lot of such material in this book.
The bulk of this book is a compendious catalogue of qualitative explanations of various physical and astronomical phenomena. These things are not Descartes's best work and have proved to be of limited impact and value. More interesting, in my opinion, is Descartes's attempts to build up physics on the basis of his overall philosophy, and his cogito argument in particular. This perspective is really only sustained in parts I and II of the book, so I shall limit my discussion to those parts.
Descartes's philosophical method is modelled on the method of Euclid's Elements, as is clear from Descartes's preface
"One must begin by searching for ... first causes, that is, for Principles [which] must be so clear and so evident that the human mind cannot doubt of their truth when it attentively considers them ... And then, one must attempt to deduce from these Principles the knowledge of the things which depend upon them, in such a way that there is nothing in the whole sequence of deductions which one makes from them which is not very manifest." (xvii-xviii)
But Descartes is not content with merely adopting the Euclidean method---he also justifies it. He does this by showing that it survives even the most critical examination possible, namely that announced in the first sentence of the text "whoever is searching for truth must, once in his life, doubt all things" (I.1).
The Euclidean method is the only philosophical method to survive this critical abyss, by the following chain of reasoning.
First we prove our own existence. "We can indeed easily suppose that there is no God, no heaven, no material bodies; and yet even that we ourselves have no hands, or feet, in short, no body; yet we do not on that account suppose that we, who are thinking such things, are nothing for it is contradictory for us to believe that that which thinks, at the very time when it is thinking, does not exist. And, accordingly, this knowledge, _I think, therefore I am,_ is the first and most certain to be acquired by and present itself to anyone who is philosophizing in correct order." (I.7)
"The knowledge of remaining things depend on a knowledge of God," because the next things the mind feels certain of are basic mathematical facts, but it cannot trust these judgments unless it knows that its creator is not deceitful. Thus "the mind ... discovers [in itself] certain common notions, and forms various proofs from these; and as long as it is concentrating on these proofs it is entirely convinced that they are true. Thus, for example, the mind has in itself the ideas of numbers and figures, and also has among its common notions, _that if equals are added to equals, the results will be equal,_ and other similar ones; from which it is easily proved that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, etc." But the mind "does not yet know whether it was perhaps created of such a nature that it errs even in those things which appear most evident to it." Therefore "the mind sees that it rightly doubts such things, and cannot have any certain knowledge until it has come to know the author of its origin." (I.13)
The existence of God is established to Descartes's satisfaction by several dubious arguments, most notably the following. "Just as, for example, the mind is entirely convinced that a triangle has three angles which are equal to two right angles, because it perceives that the fact that its three angles equal two right angles is necessarily contained in the idea of a triangle; so, solely because it perceives that necessary and eternal existence is contained in the idea of a supremely perfect being, the mind must clearly conclude that a supremely perfect being exists." (I.14) And all the more since it is "very well know from [our] natural enlightenment" "that that which is more perfect is not produced by an efficient and total cause which is less perfect; and moreover that there cannot be in us the idea or image of anything, of which there does not exist somewhere (either in us or outside us), some Original, which truly contains all its perfections. And because we in no way find in ourselves those supreme perfections of which we have the idea; from that fact alone we rightly conclude that they exist, or certainly once existed, in something different from us; that is, in God." (I.18)
"It follows from this that all the things which we clearly perceive are true, and that the doubts previously listed are removed" (I.30), since "God is not the cause of errors," owing to his perfection, seeing as "the will to deceive certainly never proceeds from anything other than malice, or fear, or weakness; and, consequently, cannot occur in God." (I.29) "Thus, Mathematical truths must no longer be mistrusted by us, since they are most manifest." (I.30)
In the same way we can be sure that material objects exist, since otherwise "it would be impossible to devise any reason for not thinking Him a deceiver" (II.1). But the argument forces upon us the restriction "that the nature of body does not consist in weight, hardness, color, or other similar properties; but in extension alone" (II.4), since a body can easily be conceived to be deprived of its secondary properties (cf. also II.11), but not its extension.
Physics, therefore, must be based on a theory of extended matter and nothing else. Two key characteristics of Cartesian physics follow quite naturally from this starting point, and are indeed introduced almost immediately relativity of space (II.13-14) and contact mechanics (II.36-52).
The first is a quite unavoidable corollary of Descartes's starting point, since his perspective does not admit the possibility of space as a concept separate from body. Thus he is compelled to argue that "the names 'place' or 'space' do not signify a thing different from the body which is said to be in the place; but only designate its size, shape and situation among other bodies" (II.13). "So when we say that a thing is in a certain place, we understand only that it is in a certain situation in relation to other things" (II.14).
A second rather straightforward consequence of Descartes's starting point is that contact mechanics is the fundamental phenomena in terms of which all other physics must be construed. And indeed Descartes offers a detailed account of contact mechanics almost at once, in II.36-52.
This edition is extremely incomplete since it leaves out most of what Descartes says on physics in Parts 2-4. For a complete edition I recommend the edition published by Reidel in 1983, translated by Valentine and Reese Miller. Unfortunately it is out of print, but I was able to get a copy with interlibrary loan.
This version is abridged. It's very difficult to find the complete work anywhere outside of a university library.
Digital copy. Doesn't include all of the original book. Good as an intro to Descartes' system of science I guess.
EXCELLENT BOOK CONSISTING OF 56 PAGES WITH FOOTNOTES IN 4 CHAPTERS. INTRODUCTION BY DESCARES IS EXCELLENT BUT IT'S DIRECTED TO HIS PUBLISHER & SOME ROYALTY.
Fantastic. A clever and insightful read. One of his great quotes from the book "In order to examine into the truth, it is necessary once in one’s life to doubt of all things."
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