Descartes (Arguments of the Philosophers) by Margaret Dauler Wilson (1-Nov-1982) Paperback

Arguments of the Philosophers

by Margaret Dauler Wilson

Excellent Book

Genres: Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[JCJBergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vital secondary source analysis of Descartes' philosophy to help me with an essay.

[katie luisa borgesius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first ninety pages or so of this in preparation for an exam. I'm not particularly interested in Descartes, but I was surprised at how much there is to discuss regarding his Meditations — it's not all as straightforward as it seems on a superficial reading. Pretty much everything you could imagine is thoroughly examined. Not all of it seems too important: some of the finer points examined felt like matters of philology at best or of pedantry at worst, but there were some interpretations and clarifications that I found enlightening and engaging. Wilson has several answers to other commentators' interpretations (which are also exposed; if charitably or not, I don't know), which, along with her own views, were quite convincing to me. I was pleasantly surprised, for instance, by her ingenious vision of the Dream Argument, which proposes that the point isn't (as I'd previously understood it) that the Meditator could be dreaming at all times, but that, since he regards the objects of his dream experiences as false without having any immediate indicators of either their truth or falsity, he, also seeing no such indicators on his waking experience, has no reason to trust these any more than his dreams. I'm only not giving this five stars because the writing is at times dense, repetitive and/or unfocused.