Episode 76, René Descartes (Part II - Meditations on First Philosophy, 1-2)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

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4.8 • 604 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2020

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All my life, I have been fed apples from that tree. I was told it was the only tree worth eating from. Every day, whether it was in school or in the church, someone would arrive with a basket, and I would take what they offered. Today a similar basket lays in front of me, full of apples I've been saving so to take a closer inspection.

Check those apples for me would you? Why so worried? Surely if they are good, there is nothing to worry about. You've heard of the Italian who was punished for checking, you say? I understand. I will do it myself.

There are too many in there to check one by one. I shall take them all out and only place back in the basket the ones that are certifiably good! I think the Italian might have been onto something, they all look rotten! I must check closer. I refuse to accept that they are all bad!

Ah, there is one. That will do. Perhaps the seeds can be used to grow more good apples...

Contents

Part I. The Life of René Descartes.

Part II. Meditations on First Philosophy, 1-2.

Part III. Meditations on First Philosophy, 3-4.

Part IV. Meditations on First Philosophy, 5-6.

Part V. Further Analysis and Discussion.

Links

René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: in which are demonstrated the existence of God and the distinction between the human soul and body (Early Modern Texts).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pan
0:01.0	Pan
0:02.0	Psygast
0:04.1	Part two
0:18.6	The Meditations
0:19.8	Meditation 1 and 2 We'll jump right into it The Meditations. Meditation 1 and 2. We'll jump right into it. The Meditations is made up of six meditations, which is a kind of fictional retreat in which each day Descartes wakes up. He has a reflection and then he goes back to bed at the end. And he makes sure at the end of each one that he lets us know he's finishing for the day just in case we're forgetting the kind of style he's
0:37.8	trying to employ here. It's really interesting how it's not Descartes's thoughts. It almost feels as if
0:43.2	they're your thoughts. He's trying to guide you through the meditation. So we should distinguish
0:47.2	between us, the meditator, and Descartes, the meditator, as we're going as well. He's writing
0:53.8	an accessible way, as Ollie mentioned,
0:55.5	towards the end of our last installment. It's for not just people who are well read. It's supposed
1:01.3	to be for royalty. It's supposed to be for academics. It's supposed to be for anyone who can read,
1:05.3	essentially. And us today is people who can read everybody. If you can read, then you should read
1:10.4	this, says Daycock,
1:11.2	because it's accessible. Quote, not a direct quote, but he writes in a letter that he even
1:16.0	hopes that women will be able to understand. I was about to say the same thing. Yeah, terrible,
1:21.5	but how far we've come. Yeah, that style is interesting. But Bernard Williams in the introduction to the text that both myself and Jack have got talks about this and saying how Descartes almost wants to separate himself as the author and using it as a way of getting people to think.
1:39.5	And when I was reading through it, it's really charming in the way it's written and it makes you easily flow through one bit to the next.
1:49.7	It's got to be the easiest read for a philosophical text, a traditional one that I've ever come across, including the Socratic ones.
1:57.2	I think it just flows really nicely.
1:59.2	Yeah.
1:59.4	And I think the confusion that that caused for some of its contemporaries is interesting. I think it just flows really nicely. Yeah, and I think the confusion that that caused
	...

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