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. |
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... possible and as liberal as necessary , an interpretive essay contextualizing the text historically , philologically , and philosophically , a comprehensive index of Latin terms , a key glossary of English equivalents , and an extensive ...
... possible and as liberal as necessary , an interpretive essay contextualizing the text historically , philologically , and philosophically , a comprehensive index of Latin terms , a key glossary of English equivalents , and an extensive ...
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... possible . 16 For at the beginning of the second part17 of the Discourse Descartes says that ' [ he ] was then in Germany ' , 18 where , after having attended the coronation of Ferdinand II as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the ...
... possible . 16 For at the beginning of the second part17 of the Discourse Descartes says that ' [ he ] was then in Germany ' , 18 where , after having attended the coronation of Ferdinand II as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the ...
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... possible for the human mind – ' in the last nine years ' or from 1619 to 1628 ( ' his novem annis ' ) ( AT , X , 331 ) . 30 As far as one can tell , Descartes was writing the final draft of the Discourse from the fall of 1635 to the ...
... possible for the human mind – ' in the last nine years ' or from 1619 to 1628 ( ' his novem annis ' ) ( AT , X , 331 ) . 30 As far as one can tell , Descartes was writing the final draft of the Discourse from the fall of 1635 to the ...
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... possible to distinguish between the probable and the certain.53 The ' benefits ' of Descartes ' procedure were its capacity , first , to show whether a problem be soluble , and then , if so , to indicate how an infallible solution would ...
... possible to distinguish between the probable and the certain.53 The ' benefits ' of Descartes ' procedure were its capacity , first , to show whether a problem be soluble , and then , if so , to indicate how an infallible solution would ...
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... possible only because God knows them as true or as possible , and that they are not , on the contrary , known as true by God in such a way that they would be true independently of him . And , if human beings really understood the sense ...
... possible only because God knows them as true or as possible , and that they are not , on the contrary , known as true by God in such a way that they would be true independently of him . And , if human beings really understood the sense ...
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