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Title: Meditations on First Philosophy: In Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated by Rene Descartes, Donald A. Cress ISBN: 0-87220-192-9 Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Pub. Date: December, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: A little wacky
Comment: The back of this book calls Meditations "the fundamental and originating work of the modern era in Western philosophy." It was undoubtedly influential. Descartes is credited for the notion that the mind and body are separate entities, that man is a machine, and the phrase "cogito ergo sum." For these reasons, this book is worth reading. However, Descartes makes many strange and incoherent arguments (especially concerning the existence of God), and I question the contemporary value of his philosophy.

One way of reading the Meditations is to see it as an argument showing that God and science are not at odds. Instead they are compatible, and he argues even that one cannot act rightly without proper understanding. Apparently, Descartes had been so horrified by Catholic Church forcing Galileo to recant his views that he stopped the publication of one of his papers.

As an attempt to make sense of what we can know, Descartes failed, and failed in some parts quite obviously. But as in all the other philosophical writings, an argument with holes does not make it worthless as philosophy. Its value lies in the influence it had on changing how we perceive the world.

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