Silencing the Demonas Advocate: The Strategy of Descartesa Meditations

This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (perfect certainty) by means of a definite method (the method of doubt). The author argues that many problems of interpretation--including notorious problems of circularity--arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, Rubin views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character--The Demon's Advocate--whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, he contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate.

Author: Ronald Rubin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 04/23/2008
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.55h x 5.98w x 0.85d
ISBN: 9780804758161

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2008 pg. 3

About the Author
Ronald Rubin is Professor of the History of Ideas at Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges. Among his published works are Formal Logic: A Model of English (1989) and a translation of Descartes' Meditations (1984).