Descartes: Selected Philosophical Writings

by René Descartes

Book Overview

Based on the new and much acclaimed two volume Cambridge edition of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes by Cottingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch, this anthology of essential texts contains the most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521358124
• Release Date: February 1988
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Descartes' Basic Writings

This first volume in a two-volume set contains: (1) Rules for the Direction of our Native Intelligence, (2) Discourse on the Method, (3) Optics, (4) Meditations on First Philosophy (together with Objections and Replies), (5) Principles of Philosophy, (6) Comments on a Certain Broadsheet, and (7) The Passions of the Soul. The only book missing from this great volume is Descartes' Geometry, but given the breadth and depth of the current volume, such an omission is understandable.The translation is among the very best, with the consistent use of nouns and verbs and direct objects throughout the various texts. The book is accompanied by an excellent index, and an occasional note only when absolutely necessary. The text is allowed to speak for itself, and this it does with aplomb.My only regret is my copy is not printed on acid-free paper, and after a decade is already beginning to age prematurely. This one complaint aside, this volume is both well written and covers Descartes' best ideas. This particular volume belongs in all serious students' and collegiate libraries.