Track | Section | Length |
01 | 00a - Letter of Dedication | 12:46 |
02 | 00b - Preface to the Reader | 8:37 |
03 | 00c - Synopsis of the Six Following Meditations | 11:00 |
04 | 01 - Meditation I: Of the Things of which We may Doubt | 16:01 |
05 | 02 - Meditation II: Of the Nature of the Human Mind; And that it is More Easily Known than the Body | 28:25 |
06 | 03 - Meditation III: Of God: That He Exists | 46:39 |
07 | 04 - Meditation IV: Of Truth and Error | 23:32 |
08 | 05 - Meditation V: Of the Essence of Material Things; And Again Of God; That He Exists | 18:29 |
09 | 06 - Meditation VI: Of the Existence of Material Things And of the Real Distinction Between the Mind and Body of Man | 41:47 |
Notes
Running Time: 3 hours and 29 minutes
Read by: D. E. Wittkower
Book Coordinator: D. E. Wittkower
Meta Coordinator: Gesine
Artwork
Cover: Portrait of Rene Descartes circa 1647-1649, by Jan Baptiste Weenix
Inset: Frontispiece to Meditationes de prima philosophia - Renatus Cartesius.
Inset: Portrait of Rene Descartes circa 1649-1700 After Frans Hals (1582/1583-1666). Louvre Museum.
Insert: Rene Descartes in his writing studio. Artist unknown.
Recordings
These recordings were made using the author’s original published work, which is in the public domain. The readings were recorded by members and volunteers of Librivox.org, which has generously made the recordings available to the public domain. The audio files have been lightly edited and have been engineered using professional audio tools for maximum sonic quality. While Librivox condones the sale and distribution of these recordings, it is not associated with the management or operations of MP3 Audiobook Classics.
- Find the eBook online at archive.org
- Download a PDF datasheet
- Read the New York Times article by Alexander George "Our Forger In Chief" which quotes Meditations on First Philosophy at length on the issue of how we assess the truth of a statement or object and the art of "poisoning the wells" used by master manipulators.
- Descartes is referenced in depth in the New Yorker review of Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Enlightenment" by Adam Kirsch "Are We Really So Modern?" in which he asserts that "For all our technological breakthroughs, we’re still wrestling with the same basic questions as the Enlightenment philosophers".
The Meditations on First Philosophy, which carries the subtitle “In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated”, is a detailed presentation of the metaphysical and philosophical systems of Descartes that became a fundamental document in the development of western thought and one of the most influential ever written. The book consists of six meditations in a narrative voice that suggests they had taken place in six days; each refers to the previous as “yesterday”. In the course of the narrative he attempts to discard belief in things which are not for certain and establish what can, in fact, be known for sure. Meditations was one of the first manuscript to undergo peer review: Descartes submitted his manuscript to numerous philosophers and theologians prior to publication, and included the objections and his replies in the first edition. The product of two years of effort, it first appeared in Latin in 1641 and was translated into French as Médiatations Métaphysiques in 1647. The first two meditations, which used the skeptical method of doubt to conclude that only the ego and its thoughts are unquestionably true, exerted a huge impact in the history of philosophy and are considered an indispensable first lesson in modern philosophical thinking. The Meditations continues to be a standard text in most university philosophy departments.
Play sample:
Download a PDF datasheet
Item Info | |
EAN - DVD case | 0683422135071 |
EAN - CD jacket | 0687700170167 |
Media | MP3 CD |
Package | DVD Case |
Author | René Descartes (1596 - 1650) |
Translator | John Veitch (1829-1894) |
Year | 1641 |
Recording | |
Read by | D. E. Wittkower |
Length | 3 hours and 27 minutes |
Type of Reading | Solo |
Meditations on First Philosophy
- Author: Rene Descartes
- Product Code: DB-1187
- Availability: In Stock
-
$9.99
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