Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xi, 371 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

1. "Descartes is often regarded as the founder of modern philosophy and is credited with placing the question of what we know and how we know it at centre stage. Descartes: Belief, Scepticism and Virtue seeks to reinsert his work and thought in its contemporary ethical and theological context." "Richard Davies mobilises the recently emerging notion of intellectual virtue to understand Descartes' philosophical enterprise as a whole. He examines the textual dynamics of Descartes' most famous writings in relation to background debates about human endeavour from Plato down to Descartes' own contemporaries. Bringing these materials together in an innovative format, Davies argues for a new approach to Descartes' ideas of scepticism and the sciences. The book also offers fresh interpretations of key passages from the Meditations." "Descartes: Belief, Scepticism and Virtue offers an original reassessment of some of the most important bodies of work in western philosophy."--Jacket.

Series statement

1. Routledge studies in seventeenth-century philosophy ; v. 3

Uniform title

1. Routledge studies in seventeenth-century philosophy ; v. 3.

Subject

1. Descartes, René, 1596-1650
2. Descartes, René, 1596-1650
3. Perón, Juan Domingo, 1895-1974
4. Descartes, René
5. Skeptizismus
6. Kennistheorie
7. Deugden
8. Scepticisme
9. Philosophers > France > 17th century

Contents

1. pt. I. Structures -- 1. Intellectual virtues -- pt. II. Excess -- 2. Reason and virtue in the Passions -- 3. The vice of credulity -- 4. The control of credulity -- 5. Reason, assent and eternal truth -- pt. III. Defect -- 6. The modes of scepticism -- 7. The form of scepticism -- pt. IV. The mean -- 8. Tota methodus -- 9. Rectitude and science -- 10. What rectitude permits -- 11. What rectitude forbids.

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-342) and indexes.