The Breakdown of Cartesian Metaphysics - Softcover

Watson, Richard A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872204065 ISBN 13: 9780872204065

Publisher: Hackett Publishing Co, Inc, 1998

Synopsis

Combines historical research and philosophical analysis to cast light on why and how Cartesianism failed as a complete metaphysical system. Far more radical in its conclusions than his 1966 study The Downfall of Cartesianism (a slightly revised version of which forms the main body of the current work), Watson argues that Descartes's ontology is incoherent and vacuous, his epistemology deceptive, and his theology unorthodox--indeed, that Descartes knows nothing.

About this title

Review

Original and stimulating. . . . The four new chapters deserve close attention. . . . Readers will await further studies by Richard A. Watson all the more impatiently. --Jean-Luc Marion, "Archives de Philosophie"

Downfall is required reading for anyone doing early modern philosophy, and its reappearance is welcome and long overdue. --Steven Nadler, "International Studies in Philosophy"

Original and stimulating. . . . The four new chapters deserve close attention. . . . Readers will await further studies by Richard A. Watson all the more impatiently. --Jean-Luc Marion, Archives de Philosophie

Downfall is required reading for anyone doing early modern philosophy, and its reappearance is welcome and long overdue. --Steven Nadler, International Studies in Philosophy

Synopsis

This study combines historical research and philosophical analysis to cast light on why and how Cartesianism failed as a complete metaphysical system. After an initial discussion of methods in the history of philosophy, there is an analysis and criticism of late-17th-century Cartesianism, a survey of Cartesian theology, and two analytic chapters on Cartesian metaphysics which aim to demonstrate its logical inconsistency. The author argues that Descartes' ontology is incoherent and vacuous, his epistemology deceptive and his theology unorthodox - indeed, that "Descartes knows nothing".

Edition details

• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Co, Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0872204065
• ISBN 13: 9780872204065
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256