Descartes' World: An Interpretation of the Discourse On Method

<p>Descartes' <italic>Discourse on Method<italic> is a canonical text. It, however, has received little attention by English scholars, and its importance for understanding Descartes' mature philosophy has been unappreciated. In this dissertation, "Descartes' <italic>World <italic>: An Interpretation of the <italic>Discourse on Method <italic>," I argue that Descartes wrote the <italic>Discourse <italic> as an outline of an early systematic text that is now lost. On my reading, the parts of the <italic>Discourse <italic> are rough outlines of treatises that Descartes composed early in his career: his <italic>Histoire de mon esprit <italic>, <italic>Rules <italic>, <italic>Treatise on Metaphysics <italic>, <italic>Treatise on Light <italic>, and <italic>Treatise on Man <italic>. Although each had a separate title, I argue that Descartes planned for this material, along with an early version of the <italic>Optics<italic> and <italic>Meteorology<italic>, to be published under the collective title <italic>The World <italic>. He, however, suppressed this project in late 1633 because of threat of condemnation over his philosophical foundations. He decided to detach the optical and meteorological portions to revise and publish them independently as the <italic>Optics<italic> and <italic>Meteorology <italic>. He later added the <italic>Discourse <italic>, where he outlined the philosophical foundations of <italic>The World <italic>. By attending to Descartes' description of his various texts in letters, I conclude that the <italic>Discourse<italic> is an approximation of Descartes' early, philosophical system. I, moreover, explain how this thesis has implications for Descartes' <italic>Meditations<italic> and <italic>Principles<italic>.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Brissey, Patrick William

Contributors dc:contributor

• Matthew J. Kisner

• Arts and Humanities
• Philosophy
• Descartes
• Discourse on Method
• meteorology
• method
• optics
• World

Statement dc:rights

• © 2012, Patrick William Brissey

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1721

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarcommons.sc.edu:etd-2722