Descartes: The World and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

Forget what you thought you learned in your freshman survey of Western philosophy about the Descartes whose thought so nicely compliments "the Matrix". Descartes spent a great deal of time in his other major works such as "The Discourse on Method", "The Principles of Philosophy", and even the "Meditations" trying to prepare his audiences for the mechanist theory he had already worked out in this work, which includes "The Treatise on Light "and "The Treatise on Man". My advice to you is to cut to the chase; this work is what Descartes was really about. "The World" was never published during Descartes's lifetime, having been suppressed after the 1633 condemnation of Galileo. In the first section, Descartes presents through the imaginary figure of a "new world" a mechanist explanation of the universe and its intricate system of vorticies, in which he does his best to refute both the seventeenth century atomist and the long-reigning Aristotelian Scholasticism's cosmological theories. Similarly, in the "The Treatise on Man", Descartes describes, through the heuristic of an imaginary automatist machine, the functions of the human body, including comprehensive accounts of sensation, the circulatory system, and the nervous system (what Descartes famously calls "the animal spirits"). The fact is, Descartes' metaphysics largely simplify Medieval accounts and just reiterate what every Jesuit would have been learning in school anyway. His mechanist physics is what was new and exciting about his work within the context of the seventeenth century. If you are interested in the history of philosophy or science, you will be doing yourself a great service to familarize yourself with this work. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Series-title 4 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 9 The origins of The World 9 The Treatise on Light 15 The Treatise on Man 25 The abandonment of The World 28 Chronology 32 Further reading 35 Note on the texts 38 The Treatise on Light and related material 39 Treatise on Light and other principal objects of the senses 41 Chapter 1 On the difference between our sensations and the things that produce them 41 Chapter 2 What the heat and the light of fire consist in 44 Chapter 3 Hardness and fluidity 47 Chapter 4 On the void, and how it comes about that our senses do not perceive certain bodies 51 Chapter 5 On the number of elements and their qualities 54 Chapter 6 Description of a new world, and the qualities of the matter of which it is composed 59 Chapter 7 The Laws of Nature of this new world 62 Chapter 8 On the formation of the sun and the stars in this new world 70 Chapter 9 On the origin and the course of the planets and comets in general, and of comets in particular 75 Chapter 10 Of the planets in general, and in particular of the Earth and the Moon 79 Chapter 11 On weight 85 Chapter 12 On The ebb and flow of the sea 90 Chapter 13 On light 92 Chapter 14 On the properties of light 100 Chapter 15 That the face of the heaven of this new world must appear to its inhabitants completely like that of our world 105 Appendix 1 The Dioptrics 114 Discourse 2: Of Refraction 114 Appendix 2 The Meteorology 123 Discourse 8: On the Rainbow 123 The Treatise on Man and related material 135 Treatise on Man 137 [Part 1: On the machine of the body] 137 [Part 2: How the machine of the body is moved] 144 [Part 3: The external senses of this machine and how they are related to ours] 156 [Part 4: On the internal senses which are to be found in this machine] 177 [Part 5: On the structure of the brain of this machine, and how the spirits are distributed there so as to cause its... 180 The Description of the Human Body and All Its Functions, those that do not depend on the Soul as well as those that do. And... 208 [Part 1. Preface] 208 [Part 2. On the motion of the heart and the blood] 210 [Part 3. On nutrition] 220 [Part 4. The bodily parts that are formed in the seed] 224 [Part 5. On the formation of the solid parts] 236 Index 244 Descartes' The World Offers The Most Comprehensive Vision Of The Nature Of The World Since Aristotle, And Is Crucial For An Understanding Of His Later Writings, In Particular The Meditations And Principles Of Philosophy. Above All, It Provides An Insight Into How Descartes Conceived Of Natural Philosophy Before He Started To Reformulate His Doctrines In Terms Of A Skeptically Driven Epistemology. Of Its Two Parts, The Treatise On Light Introduced The First Comprehensive, Quantitative Version Of A Mechanistic Natural Philosophy, Supplying A Theory Of Matter, Physical Optics, And A Cosmology, And The Treatise On Man Provided The First Comprehensive Mechanist Physiology. This Volume Also Includes Translations Of Material Important For An Understanding Of The Work: Related Sections From The Dioptrics And The Meteors, And The First English Translation Of The Complete Text Of The Description Of The Human Body.--jacket. The World And Other Writings. The Treatise On Light -- Discourse 2 Of The Dioptrics -- Discourse 8 Of The Meteors -- The Treatise On Man -- Description Of The Human Body. René Descartes ; Translated And Edited By Stephen Gaukroger. Includes Bibliographical References (p. Xxxiii-xxxv) And Index. Descartes' The World offers the most comprehensive vision of the nature of the world since Aristotle, and is crucial for an understanding of his later writings, in particular the Meditations and Principles of Philosophy. Above all, it provides an insight into how Descartes conceived of natural philosophy before he started to reformulate his doctrines in terms of a sceptically driven epistemology. Of its two parts, the Treatise on Light introduced the first comprehensive, quantitative version of a mechanistic natural philosophy, supplying a theory of matter, a physical optics, and a cosmology. The Treatise on Man provided the first comprehensive mechanist physiology. This volume also includes translations of material important for an understanding of the work: related sections from the Dioptrics and the Meteors, and the first English translation of the complete text of The Description of the Human Body. Descartes' The World offers the most comprehensive vision of the nature of the world since Aristotle, and is crucial for an understanding of his later writings, in particular the Meditations and Principles of Philosophy. Above all, it provides an insight into how Descartes conceived of natural philosophy before he started to reformulate his doctrines in terms of a sceptically driven epistemology. Of its two parts, the Treatise on Light introduced the first comprehensive, quantitative version of a mechanistic natural philosophy, supplying a theory of matter, a physical optics, and a cosmology. The Treatise on Man provided the first comprehensive mechanist physiology. This volume also includes translations of material important for an understanding of the work: related sections from the Dioptrics and the Meteors, and an English translation of the complete text of The Description of the Human Body.

Descartes' The World offers the most comprehensive vision of the nature of the world since Aristotle, and is crucial for an understanding of his later writings, in particular the Meditations and Principles of Philosophy. Above all, it provides an insight into how Descartes conceived of natural philosophy before he started to reformulate his doctrines in terms of a skeptically-driven epistemology. This volume offers a new translation of the work together with related writings that illuminate it, including the first English translation of the complete text of The Description of the Human Body.