Meditations on First Philosophy

Written by René Descartes

Narrated by Paul Hecht

A landmark in the history of thought, RenE Descartes' Meditations helped bring critical thinking and skepticism to the Western world. Modern philosophers are still captivated by Descartes' radical and controversial departure from his previous beliefs, which has both inspired reverence and provoked anger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 16, 2009
• ISBN: 9781436185905

René Descartes

René Descartes, known as the Father of Modern Philosophy and inventor of Cartesian coordinates, was a seventeenth century French philosopher, mathematician, and writer. Descartes made significant contributions to the fields of philosophy and mathematics, and was a proponent of rationalism, believing strongly in fact and deductive reasoning. Working in both French and Latin, he wrote many mathematical and philosophical works including The World, Discourse on a Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, and Passions of the Soul. He is perhaps best known for originating the statement “I think, therefore I am.”

Reviews for Meditations on First Philosophy

[chriszodrow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book marks the shift in philosophical speculation, from the Nature-Grace ethos of the Medieval age to that of Nature-Freedom of the Enlightenment. Descartes essentially put an X through the then standing assumptions regarding knowledge. Agree or disagree, this book defines much of Western thought to this day. This is an important book. Funny, most of the really powerful and long-lasting ideas have been in brief books like this one.

[elizabethpisani_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The title is certainly misleading. Sex and science (and above all the combination of the two) are definitely my thing, but this book has precious little of either. It is an interesting enough account of how necessity and the profit profit motive lie at the root of much innovation, but that hardly justifies this lengthy treatment.

[mjklin-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting first part where he "debunks" the previous history of philosophy; but what was all that stuff about the motion of the blood and heart towards the end?

[nielspeterqm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Together with Bacon's New Organon, this small, lucid book is the methodological foundation of the entire scientific revolution - the "birth" of modern science during the 17th century - & perhaps even of technology as such. The celebrated & hypnotic mantra "nous rendre comme maîtres & possesseurs de la nature" - to acquire command of all nature by the radically cautious & methodical acquisition of knowledge that Descartes outlines - became a programme, a prize, an obsession, & decided, for good & evil, the size & shape of our universe.

[Lewi Hansel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really hard to understand, but worth to keep. Need to listen a couple of time for me to really understand the context and the point of the book.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Logical and critical, this book is a good primer for those interested in Descartes and further philosophy. I recommend it to those seeking knowledge, logic, and sagacity.

[jculkin-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I don't doubt it is an important work in the development of 'The Great Conversation', but I rate a book according to how much I get out of it, and how much I enjoy it. It seems like a bit of a let down after reading Discourse on Method: but I suppose I should have taken the last 2 parts of that book (5 and 6) as a warning of what was to come. The first two meditations (again, of 6) to me are an echo of the Discourse; longer and less clear.

There are good lines here and there, but after proving his own existence he goes off the 'right path'as he calls it, with his argument for god: I couldn't think of a perfect being unless there was one already. Simon Blackburn (Think, 1999) provides an excuse for Descartes, suggeesting that the idea of cause and effect have changed considerably since then: apparently at that point in history, whatever causes, neccesarily passes something on, like a baton in a relay race, to the thing it causes. I half-heartedly continued into meditation 4 onwards, but I began to skip sections once I found "God" coming up every two or three lines. A key point in our history, but not so accessible today. Discourse is lovely though!

[sharon.flesher · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Read for an on-line philosophy course. I doubt I would have made it through the first few pages without the encouragement of the professor, and I preferred his summary of the book to the actual book.

[audacity88_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, it was cool until he ended up "deducing" the existence of God.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Descartes is of course famous for “Cogito Ergo Sum”, or “I think, therefore I am”, an argument which is laid out in these meditations … and OK, if one needs to spend the mental energy to prove one exists, fine. Hats off to the man for thinking deep thoughts and putting quill to parchment in 1641. But he then builds upon this to “prove” that God exists. I won’t recreate that argument here because it’s ridiculous, and a good example of how a philosopher can wrap himself up too much in a pseudo-intellectual argument to reach his desired conclusion, whatever it might be. Of course the Meditations have value and a solid place in the history of Western Philosophy, but I’d recommend turning to the philosophy of the East instead. I got very little out of these writings.

[jpsnow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's a classic but... a tiresome and rather flawed attempt to prove the existence of god and everything else. If nothing else, it seems to show the powerful influence of the church's recent treatment of Descarte's contemporaries.