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HoP 470 Gary Hatfield on Descartes' Meditations

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HoP 470 Gary Hatfield on Descartes' Meditations

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

2025/05/25
History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

2025/05/25
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

We're joined in this episode by a leading expert on one of the most famous works of philosophy ever written: Descartes' Meditations.

Highlights

This podcast delves into the hidden depths of René Descartes' *Meditations*, exploring its true purpose as a foundation for a new physics and a weapon against Aristotelian thought. A leading expert guides us through the text's famous arguments, from the method of doubt to the Cogito, and tackles the persistent puzzle of the Cartesian Circle.
03:23
The Meditations had a hidden purpose to support his physics.
06:17
Descartes rejects Aristotelian sensory abstraction.
15:23
The cogito establishes the truth rule.
21:25
Descartes' arguments are valid but unsound.
33:09
The Meditations is a cognitive exercise within a broader scientific project.

Chapters

The Hidden Agenda: Why Descartes' Meditations Was Really About Physics
00:00
A Journey of the Mind: The Fictional Meditator and the Rejection of Aristotle
06:17
Doubting Everything: The Evil Demon, the Cogito, and the Search for Certainty
12:45
The Cartesian Circle: A Valid Argument Built on Unconvincing Premises?
21:25
Beyond the Meditations: Descartes' True Goal of Building a New Science
30:19

Transcript

Peter Adamson: Hi, I'm Peter Adamson. And you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at King's College London and the LMU in Munich, online at historyofphilosophy.net. Today's episode...