Task 1 In a letter of 13 November 1639, Descartes wrote to Mersenne…

Task 1 In a letter of 13 November 1639, Descartes wrote to Mersenne…

Task 1MeditationsMeditationsAs previously mentioned, Descartes considered the Meditations

In a letter of 13 November 1639, Descartes wrote to Mersenne that he was “working on a discourse in which I try to clarify what I have hitherto written” on metaphysics (2:622). This was the , and presumably he was revising or recasting the Latin treatise from 1629. He announced to Mersenne a plan to put the work before “the twenty or thirty most learned theologians” before it was published. In the end, he and Mersenne collected seven sets of objections to the , which Descartes published with the work, along with his replies (1641, 1642). Some objections were from unnamed theologians, passed on by Mersenne; one set came from the Dutch priest Johannes Caterus; one set was from the Jesuit philosopher Pierre Bourdin; others were from Mersenne himself, from the philosophers Pierre Gassendi and Thomas Hobbes, and from the Catholic philosopher-theologian Antoine Arnauld.

to contain the principles of his physics. But there is no Meditation labeled “principles of physics.” The principles in question, which are spread through the work, concern the nature of matter (that its essence is extension), the activity of God in creating and conserving the world, the nature of mind (that it is an unextended, thinking substance), mind-body union and interaction, and the ontology of sensory qualities. (Descartes and his followers included topics concerning the nature of the mind and mind-body interaction within physics or natural philosophy, on which, see Hatfield 2000.)

Once Descartes had presented his metaphysics, he felt free to proceed with the publication of his entire physics. However, he needed first to teach it to speak Latin (3:523), the lingua franca of the seventeenth century. He hatched a scheme to publish a Latin version of his physics (the Principles) together with a scholastic Aristotelian work on physics, so that the comparative advantages would be manifest. For this purpose, he chose the Summa philosophiae of Eustace of St. Paul. That part of his plan never came to fruition. His intent remained the same: he wished to produce a book that could be adopted in the schools, even Jesuit schools such as La Flêche (3:233, 523). Ultimately, his physics was taught in the Netherlands, France, England, and parts of Germany. For the Catholic lands, the teaching of his philosophy was dampened when his works were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1663, although his followers in France, such as Jacques Rohault (1618-72) and Pierre Regis (1632-1707), continued to promote Descartes’ natural philosophy.

The Principles appeared in Latin in 1644, with a French translation following in 1647. Descartes added to the French translation an “Author’s Letter” to serve as a preface. In the letter he explained important elements of his attitude toward philosophy, including the view that in matters philosophical one must reason through the arguments and evaluate them for one’s self (9B:3). He also presented an image of the relations among the various parts of philosophy, in the form of a tree:

Thus the whole of philosophy is like a tree. The roots are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches emerging from the trunk are all the other sciences, which may be reduced to three principal ones, namely medicine, mechanics and morals. By “morals” I understand the highest and most perfect moral system, which presupposes a complete knowledge of the other sciences and is the ultimate level of wisdom. (9B:14)

The extant Principles offer metaphysics in Part I; the general principles of physics, in the form of his matter theory and laws of motion, are presented in Part II, as following from the metaphysics; Part III concerns astronomical phenomena; and Part IV covers the formation of the earth and seeks to explain the properties of minerals, metals, magnets, fire, and the like, to which are appended discussions of how the senses operate and a final discussion of methodological issues in natural philosophy. His intent had been also to explain in depth the origins of plants and animals, human physiology, mind-body union and interaction, and the function of the senses. In the end, he had to abandon the discussion of plants and animals (Princ. IV.188), but he included some discussion of mind-body union in his abbreviated account of the senses.

1.      Which of the following would be a genuine problem for Descartes’ dreaming argument?

2.      Which statement about the dreaming argument is most correct:

“Often in my dreams I am convinced of just such familiar events—that I am sitting by the fire in my dressing-gown—when in fact I am lying undressed in bed! Yet right now my eyes are certainly wide open when I look at this piece of paper; I shake my head and it isn’t asleep; when I rub one hand against the other, I do it deliberately and know what I am doing. This wouldn’t all happen with such clarity to someone asleep. As if I didn’t remember other occasions when I have been tricked by exactly similar thoughts while asleep!”

3.      Which of the following claims is Descartes making in this passage:

4.      Which of the following is an objection – made by Descartes himself – to the above argument?

5.      What are the two premises of the argument:

6.      What is the conclusion of this argument:

7.      Consider the following argument. Note that the claims in the argument are numbered. Conclusion: (1) Smith killed West. Reason (main claim): (2) West was killed with rat poison. Reason (helping premise): (3) Smith’s clothes showed traces of rat poison when he was arrested directly after West’s murder. What sort of scenario would we have to try to construct to see whether this is a valid argument?

8.      ) Combining Prilythone syrup with Ognonomosis tablets can sometimes lead to internal bleeding.

9.      If Siphiwe is taller than Lindiwe, and Lindiwe is taller than Sibusiso, then Siphiwe is taller than Sibusiso.

Consider the following argument. Conclusion: Cigarettes are absolutely delicious. Reason (main claim): People who smoke keep on wanting more cigarettes.

10.  What statement best describes this argument?