Regulae Ad Directionem IngeniiExactly four hundred years after the birth of René Descartes (1596-1650), the present volume now makes available, for the first time in a bilingual, philosophical edition prepared especially for English-speaking readers, his Regulae ad directionem ingenii / Rules for the Direction of the Natural Intelligence (1619-1628), the Cartesian treatise on method. This unique edition contains an improved version of the original Latin text, a new English translation intended to be as literal as possible and as liberal as necessary, an interpretive essay contextualizing the text historically, philologically, and philosophically, a com-prehensive index of Latin terms, a key glossary of English equivalents, and an extensive bibliography covering all aspects of Descartes' methodology. Stephen Gaukroger has shown, in his authoritative Descartes: An Intellectual Biography (1995), that one cannot understand Descartes without understanding the early Descartes. But one also cannot understand the early Descartes without understanding the Regulae / Rules. Nor can one understand the Regulae / Rules without understanding a philosophical edition thereof. Therein lies the justification for this project. The edition is intended, not only for students and teachers of philosophy as well as of related disciplines such as literary and cultural criticism, but also for anyone interested in seriously reflecting on the nature, expression, and exercise of human intelligence: What is it? How does it manifest itself? How does it function? How can one make the most of what one has of it? Is it equally distributed in all human beings? What is natural about it, and what, not? In the Regulae / Rules Descartes tries to provide, from a distinctively early modern perspective, answers both to these and to many other questions about what he refers to as ingenium. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 44
Page 4
... already renowned as a center of mathematical learning , namely , the imperial city of Ulm on the Danube River , 20 and at the end of that part21 he says that ' [ he ] was then twenty - three [ years old ] ' . 22 The second stage , a ...
... already renowned as a center of mathematical learning , namely , the imperial city of Ulm on the Danube River , 20 and at the end of that part21 he says that ' [ he ] was then twenty - three [ years old ] ' . 22 The second stage , a ...
Page 6
... already at the end of 1628 ] que j'ai été en ce pays [ Holland ] , je n'ai travaillé à autre chose .... ' Next , To Mersenne , Nov. 25 , 1630 ( ibid . , p . 182 ) : ' ... a little Treatise on Meta- physics , which I began when I was in ...
... already at the end of 1628 ] que j'ai été en ce pays [ Holland ] , je n'ai travaillé à autre chose .... ' Next , To Mersenne , Nov. 25 , 1630 ( ibid . , p . 182 ) : ' ... a little Treatise on Meta- physics , which I began when I was in ...
Page 7
... already been presented , the Discourse con- tains what may be apprehended as an oblique reference to the main work that would have been in progress in the previous decade . At one point , namely , Descartes writes : 44 These nine years ...
... already been presented , the Discourse con- tains what may be apprehended as an oblique reference to the main work that would have been in progress in the previous decade . At one point , namely , Descartes writes : 44 These nine years ...
Page 8
... already during his college education , ' delighted ... because of the certitude and the evidence of its reasonings ' as well as because of its ' firm and solid foundations'.57 For the idea was to begin with propositions that were so ...
... already during his college education , ' delighted ... because of the certitude and the evidence of its reasonings ' as well as because of its ' firm and solid foundations'.57 For the idea was to begin with propositions that were so ...
Page 13
... already at the end of 1628 ] in this country [ Holland ] I worked on nothing else . ' The clear implication in context is that in the following remarks on ' mathematical truths ' Descartes is going to be drawing on his earlier inquiries ...
... already at the end of 1628 ] in this country [ Holland ] I worked on nothing else . ' The clear implication in context is that in the following remarks on ' mathematical truths ' Descartes is going to be drawing on his earlier inquiries ...
Contents
13 | |
19 | |
The Regula and the Principles 1644 | 27 |
Manuscripts Editions Translations of the Regula | 47 |
De scientia et cognitione | 70 |
De intuitione et deductione | 76 |
De methodo mathematica et mathesi universali | 84 |
De ordine et dispositione rerum | 98 |
De enumeratione sive inductione | 106 |
De limitibus rationis humanae | 112 |
99 | 118 |
De capacitate illationis | 134 |
De quaestionibus perfecte intellectis | 166 |
De repraesentatione et sensibus | 194 |
De desideratis | 216 |
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Common terms and phrases
adeo Adrien Baillet aëre alia aliis aliqua aliquid aliud Aristotle atque autem cetera cognitionem deduction denique Descartes directionem ingenii Discourse distinct distinctly eadem edition enim eodem etiam etiamsi Étienne Gilson evidence figures geometry haec hanc human ibid illa illam illis illorum illud intellect inter inter se intuition ipsis knowledge lacuna Latin Leibniz Letter to Mersenne Logista magis magnitudes mathematics mathesis universalis means Meditations memory metaphysical method Missing in H modo natural intelligence nempe neque nihil nisi nobis omnes omnia omnibus omnium passim philosophy posse possit potest Premiss propositions quae quam quas question quia quibus quid quidem quod quomodo ratione reason Regula Regulæ ad directionem René Descartes rerum revera rule saepe sense Sextus Empiricus simul singula sint sive sunt tamen tantum things tion treatise truth tunc understand unquam vero