Silencing the demon's advocate : the strategy of Descartes' Meditations / [electronic resource]
Rubin, Ronald.
Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press,
c2008.
"This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end ("perfect certainty") by means of a definite method ("the method of doubt"). The author argues that many problems of interpretation - including notorious problems of circularity - arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, Rubin views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character - The Demon's Advocate - whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, he contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate."--BOOK JACKET.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-184) and index.
Doubt -- Certainty and stability -- Method -- The riddle of the cogito -- From self to God -- The validation of intuition -- Clarity and distinctness -- God's essence and existence -- Mind and body -- Empirical knowledge.
"This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end ("perfect certainty") by means of a definite method ("the method of doubt"). The author argues that many problems of interpretation - including notorious problems of circularity - arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, Rubin views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character - The Demon's Advocate - whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, he contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate."--BOOK JACKET.
Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Description based on print version record.
Descartes, René, 1596-1650.
Philosophy & Religion
Philosophy