Meditationes de prima philosophia

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Meditationes de prima philosophia

The Meditations on First Philosophy, in qua Dei existentia et animae Immortalitas demonstratur ( lat. Is proved Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul ) are an epochal work of the French philosopher René Descartes on metaphysics and epistemology of the year 1641 . In 1647 the meditations, initially printed in Latin, were translated into French under the title Méditations sur la philosophie première, dans laquelle sont démontrées l'existence de Dieu et l'immortalité de l'âme . Part of the book, translated by Kuno Fischer, appeared in German in 1863 in the main publications laying the foundations for his philosophy . In 1870 Julius von Kirchmann published a complete German translation under the title Investigations on the Basics of Philosophy . Artur Buchenau's translation was published in 1904 under the title Meditations on the Basics of Philosophy .

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The Meditationes de prima philosophia consist of a preceding letter to the Sorbonne , a foreword to the reader and an overview of six monological individual meditations and then seven objections from various contemporary scholars (including Thomas Hobbes , Marin Mersenne , Pierre Gassendi ) and Descartes' respective replies to this.

First meditation

What one can doubt

In the first meditation, Descartes applies methodological doubt . In doing so, he does not start with the individual findings, but with the principles of the findings themselves, on which he had based everything that he believed to be true until then. First of all, he excludes all knowledge that can only be conveyed through sensual perception. Then he also excludes knowledge that convey arithmetic , geometry and comparable sciences , how they deal with general things and for which it is not relevant whether they really exist, because an evil demon ( Descartian demon ) could also have faked these findings.

Second meditation

About the nature of the human mind; that it is closer to knowledge than the body

In the second meditation Descartes mentions a point that is different from what he methodically questioned in the first meditation and does not give rise to any doubt, since even a possible evil demon cannot deceive him on this point.

“So undoubtedly I am also if he deceives me; even if he may deceive me as much as he can, he will never be able to prevent me from being as long as I think I am something. After having considered everything enough and over-enough, I must finally state that the sentence ' I am, I exist ', whenever I pronounce it or understand it in my mind, is necessarily true ” (II, 3).

In doubtful thinking , Descartes experiences himself as existing. With this, Descartes found a fixed point from which to start.

Third meditation

About the existence of God

The central question of the third meditation is how secure knowledge can be built on it. To do this, Descartes must first exclude the existence of the deceiving God, whom he introduced in the first meditation. He succeeds in this by formulating a proof of God in which he concludes from the idea of ​​God that he carries within himself that he actually exists: Since every cause (God) is in principle more perfect than its consequence (creation, man) and Descartes concludes that the idea of ​​an infinite , independent, omniscient and omnipotent being could not have been brought up by a human being as an imperfect being himself, that God necessarily exists. This excludes the existence of a deceiving God, because God could not possibly deceive him, since deception belongs in the realm of the imperfect and would thus contradict the idea of ​​God as a perfect being.

Fourth meditation

About the true and the false

In the fourth meditation, Descartes explains why people can be wrong in their senses despite the non-existence of a deceiving God. This human capacity for error is not willed or brought about by God, but is based on the finitude of man. The possibility of humans to come to knowledge are limited, so that he could also arrive at wrong judgments in this process of knowledge.

Fifth meditation

About the nature of material things, and again about the existence of God

In the fifth and sixth meditations Descartes only has to dispel doubts about sensory perception , which requires more than just pointing to a possible hasty judgment. In the fifth meditation Descartes again deduces the existence of God by inferring his existence from his definition as a perfect being.

Sixth meditation

On the existence of material things and on the real difference between the mind and the body

In the sixth meditation Descartes explains that sensory perceptions are always tied to a thinking and feeling self. God instilled in people the idea that sensory perception came from the body. Since it is incompatible with God's nature that he deceive people, physical things must truly exist. Descartes describes the realm of the thinking, judging ego as res cogitans , while the physical things, i.e. the object world , fall into the realm of res extensa .

Descartes concludes from his remarks that everything is true that can be clearly recognized, so that he has found a secure basis for philosophical knowledge.

See also

literature

  • Gregor Betz: Descartes' «Meditations». A systematic commentary , original edition, Reclam, Stuttgart, 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-018828-6
  • René Descartes: Conversation with Burman , Latin-German, transl. u. ed. v. Hans W. Arndt, Meiner, Hamburg 1982, ISBN 978-3-7873-0501-8 Contains u. a. Explanations of the meditations
  • René Descartes: Meditations , trilingual parallel edition (Latin, French, German), edited by Andreas Schmidt, Philosophy Collection, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3525306048
  • René Descartes: Meditations. With all objections and replies , completely new translated, with an introduction edited by Christian Wohlers, PhB 598, Meiner, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7873-1888-9 (paperback 2011)
  • René Descartes: Meditationes de Prima Philosophia. Meditations on the Basics of Philosophy , Meiner, Hamburg, 1992,
    Philosophical Library Volume 250a, Latin-German edition, ISBN 3-7873-1080-0
  • René Descartes: Meditationes de Prima Philosophia. Meditations on First Philosophy , Reclam, Stuttgart, 1986, ISBN 3-15-002888-4
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann : Descartes' Meditations , Klostermann, Frankfurt a. M., 2011, ISBN 978-3-465-04127-6
  • Andreas Kemmerling (Hrsg.): René Descartes: Meditations on the First Philosophy , Classics Explaining 37, Oldenbourg Akademieverlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-057158-5 (2nd, edited edition)

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Secondary literature