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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Page 10
... true any supposed falsehood ( cf. both Borel , Vitae Cartesii compendium , p . 4 [ ' duodecim argumentis verisimilibus ' ] , and Baillet , op . cit . , p . 71 [ ' avec douze arguments tous plus vraissemblables l'un que l'autre ...
... true any supposed falsehood ( cf. both Borel , Vitae Cartesii compendium , p . 4 [ ' duodecim argumentis verisimilibus ' ] , and Baillet , op . cit . , p . 71 [ ' avec douze arguments tous plus vraissemblables l'un que l'autre ...
Page 11
... true judgments as the direction in which the natural intelligence has to move , is ' not without merit ' selected as the first of all.66 Rule 2 , concerning the role of certainty and that of probability in the search for knowledge ...
... true judgments as the direction in which the natural intelligence has to move , is ' not without merit ' selected as the first of all.66 Rule 2 , concerning the role of certainty and that of probability in the search for knowledge ...
Page 15
... true or 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 ...
... true or 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 ...
Page 16
... true that all the radii of the circle are equal – just as free as he was not to create the world . And it is certain that these truths are no more necessarily attached to his essence than are the other creatures . You ask what God has ...
... true that all the radii of the circle are equal – just as free as he was not to create the world . And it is certain that these truths are no more necessarily attached to his essence than are the other creatures . You ask what God has ...
Page 17
... true . The methodological approach is the earlier , and the metaphysical is the later , for the former is that of the Regulæ ( 1619–1628 ) , and the latter would be that of the " Treatise on Met- aphysics ' ( 1628-1629 ) as well as of ...
... true . The methodological approach is the earlier , and the metaphysical is the later , for the former is that of the Regulæ ( 1619–1628 ) , and the latter would be that of the " Treatise on Met- aphysics ' ( 1628-1629 ) as well as of ...
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