Greg Detre
Thursday, 11 October, 2001
Dr K J Morris, Mansfield
katherine.morris@mansf.ox.ac.uk
did not get handout
Descartes scholarship has progressed since Williams� book. what�s interesting about this new scholarship?
tending towards a new relationship between history of philosophy and philosophy
quote from Nietzsche on the Romans (�how ugly is everything dead�): captures some of the old relationship between history of philosophy and philosophy
the old scholarship (e.g. Williams, Kenny) treat Descartes as one of us, who�s got everything wrong, who�s addressing our questions, but in a poor way
the new scholarship try to see Descartes more in his historical context, basically as a scholastic, writing in response to scholastic texts, and as a consequence he really isn�t one of us addressing the same problems we are today
but if he isn�t addressing our problems, what�s the point of reading about dead solutions to dead problems?
suggest more of an analogy between philosophy and art (rather than with science), where we don�t regard Renaissance art as valueless just because it�s old and trying to achieve something different from modern art
people tend to be taught that the Meditations is first and foremost a work of epistemology � used the sceptics� method of doubt to refute the method of doubt � the centrality of epistemology
meditations are not a usual way for approaching epistemology
distracts you from noticing the metaphysics � �first philosophy� (or even Meditations metaphysique in the French)
tendency to see scepticism as the main/only target � one of his primary targets is clearly empiricism (the idea that if you�ve got a conflict between reason and the senses, you go with the senses)
Descartes attached quite particular meanings to the terms �sceptic� etc., which are different to the standard scholarship
different genres apart from modern essay:
������ disputations � typical of scholastic texts (e.g. Aquinas)
philosophical dialogues � depends who you�re talking to, e.g. Plato
intellectual biographies � supposedly in chronological ordere.g. Augustine�s Confessions, Descartes�s Discourses
theorems and problems � definitions, axioms and postulates, e.g. Euclid
meditations � follow the order of reasoning, the order in which things are discovered
Meditations are in the first person (but so are intellectual biographies). Descartes explained why he wrote in meditation form in the Second Replies, where he sets out his argument in the style of theorems and problems � and also justifies his use of the meditations style. Reveals Descartes�s concern with his readers, freeing them from preconceived opinions (almost a moral concern). You need a method that generates the right kind of attention, but the only one that does, is one which shows the way in which the thing was discovered, e.g. logic exams not requiring any working and people learning huge lists of formulae beforehand rather than learning the method by which you can work out the answer. Finding the truth requires a method, for achieving clear and distinct perception. Claims that the meditation genre is the best style for teaching the method of truth. Allows the reader to make the understanding his own, to grasp it as fervently as if he�d discovered it in the same way himself.
the demon is presented as a habit-breaking device (bend the bent stick in the opposite direction)
C+D perceptions seem very mysterious � they can be seen just as the outcome of the best use of the intellect