Descartes and Augustine / Stephen Menn.

By: Menn, Stephen Philip, 1964-

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998Description: xvi, 415 p. ; 24 cmISBN: 0521417023 (hard)Subject(s): Descartes, René, 1596-1650

| Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430 -- Influence | Descartes, René, 1596-1650. Meditationes de prima philosophiaDDC classification: 194 LOC classification: B1875 | .M38 1998Online resources: Publisher description | Table of contents

Contents:

Summary: This book is the first systematic study of Descartes' relation to Augustine. It offers a complete re-evaluation of Descartes' philosophy, and of the philosophical ideas in Augustine that were Descartes' starting point. Descartes and Augustine will engage the attention of historians of medieval, neo-Platonic, and early modern philosophy. That Descartes was indebted to Augustine is not in itself a fresh discovery. What distinguishes Stephen Menn's book is his detailed demonstration that the key to the Meditations is Descartes' use of Augustine's method for establishing a knowledge of God and the soul independent of any theory of the physical world. This method gives Descartes an independent starting point for reconstructing the system of the sciences. Where the scholastics had tried to show that Augustine's metaphysics of God and the soul is compatible with an Aristotelian physics of matter and form, Descartes argues that they are not compatible, and that Augustinian metaphysics provides the foundation for an anti-Aristotelian mechanistic physics. Menn gives a detailed analysis of the Meditations, showing how the novel form of Descartes' argument arises from the challenge of presenting Augustine's metaphysics in a way that makes it suitable for its new foundational task. Descartes and Augustine includes a complete reading of the Meditations, a historical and philosophical introduction to Augustine's thought and to Plotinian neo-Platonism, and a discussion of the contemporary context of Descartes' earlier and later philosophical projects.

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Books / Monographs	Dominican University College Library / Collège Universitaire Dominicain Hours of operation: Monday - Thursday 8am - 8:30 pm; Friday 8am - 4pm \| Les heures d'ouverture : Lundi à jeudi de 8 h à 20 h 30; vendredi 8h - 16h Standard shelving location / Rayonnage standard	B 1875 .M38 1998 (Browse shelf (Opens below))	Available		100000000806

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Previous	B 1875 .M37 D48 1986 Descartes's Gambit	B 1875 .M37 E83 1933 Étendue et conscience ; essai de réfutation du dualisme cartésien	B 1875 .M37 S87 2013 Sur la pensee passive de Descartes	B 1875 .M38 1998 Descartes and Augustine /	B 1875 .M39 S95 2004 Le sujet géométrique ou pour une solution au problème de l'union de l'âme et du corps dans la philosophie de R. Descartes	B 1875 .M48 S48 1965 Meta-Meditations : Studies in Descartes	B 1875 .M49 E96 1966 1,2 Expliquez-moi... Descartes Discours de la méthode	Next

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1989.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 405-407) and index.

_g1.
_tDescartes and the history of philosophy.
_g2.
_tDescartes' project for a new philosophy.
_gA.
_tThe expectation of a new philosophy.
_gB.
_tDescartes: science and wisdom.
_gC.
_tDescartes: Augustine against Aristotle.
_gD.
_tOutline of research --
_gpt. 1.
_tAugustinian Wisdom.
_g3.
_tPlotinus.
_gA.
_tAugustine and the Platonists.
_gB.
_tPlatonism, anti-Stoicism, and the method of ascent.
_gC.
_tSoul and Nous.
_gD.
_tSoul in bodies.
_g4.
_tAugustine.
_gA.
_tTrue and false wisdom.
_gB.
_tThe soul and God.
_gC.
_tWhence evil?
_gD.
_tChristianity and philosophy --
_gpt. 2.
_tDescartes' Metaphysics.
_g5.
_tThe design of the Meditations.
_gA.
_tFrom the Rules to the Meditations.
_gB.
_tThe uses of scepticism: withdrawing the mind from the senses.

This book is the first systematic study of Descartes' relation to Augustine. It offers a complete re-evaluation of Descartes' philosophy, and of the philosophical ideas in Augustine that were Descartes' starting point. Descartes and Augustine will engage the attention of historians of medieval, neo-Platonic, and early modern philosophy. That Descartes was indebted to Augustine is not in itself a fresh discovery. What distinguishes Stephen Menn's book is his detailed demonstration that the key to the Meditations is Descartes' use of Augustine's method for establishing a knowledge of God and the soul independent of any theory of the physical world. This method gives Descartes an independent starting point for reconstructing the system of the sciences. Where the scholastics had tried to show that Augustine's metaphysics of God and the soul is compatible with an Aristotelian physics of matter and form, Descartes argues that they are not compatible, and that Augustinian metaphysics provides the foundation for an anti-Aristotelian mechanistic physics. Menn gives a detailed analysis of the Meditations, showing how the novel form of Descartes' argument arises from the challenge of presenting Augustine's metaphysics in a way that makes it suitable for its new foundational task. Descartes and Augustine includes a complete reading of the Meditations, a historical and philosophical introduction to Augustine's thought and to Plotinian neo-Platonism, and a discussion of the contemporary context of Descartes' earlier and later philosophical projects.

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