Cartesian Truth

By Thomas C. Vinci

Bold and pioneering, this book makes a detailed historical and systematic case that Descartes's theory of knowledge is an elegant and powerful combination of a priori, naturalistic, and dialectical elements meriting serious consideration by both contemporary analytic philosophers and
postmodern thinkers. In the course of making this case Thomas Vinci develops a broad reinterpretation of Cartesian thought that unlocks novel solutions to many of the most vexed questions in Cartesian scholarship.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195113292
• ISBN13: 9780195113297
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Important Descartes

This is an important book on Descartes by a U Pitt veteran. I also recommend Williams (Descartes) and Broughton ("D and the Method of Doubt"/Princeton UP), as well as Stroud's Quest for Reality (Oxford UP), MD Wilson, "Ideas and Mechanisms."Vinci's book is an extremely careful reading of D's Meditations. Chapter Two: "Truth, Existence and Ideas" is excellent. Some of the more important material here is in Chapter Four: "Sense Experience of Primary Qualities," as well as Chapter Five: "Perceptual Representation of Ordinary Objects."This book deserves my highest recommendation and is an excellent introduction (as well as rigorous) to a "historical" Descartes--how D's project is relevant and contributes to current philosophy of mind discussions, esp. in perceptual knowledge.I also recommend Sellars' EPM and McDowell.