1st Edition
Self, Reason, and Freedom A New Light on Descartes' Metaphysics
Introduction 1. Methodic doubt and the abyss of scepticism 2. The first certainty 3. Sum res cogitans 4. Thought and reality 5. God’s existence: The argument from clear and distinct ideas 6. Understanding, error, and the will 7. Freedom, truth, and goodness 8. The metaphysics of corporeality and God’s existence: The argument from God’s essence 9. The existence of the corporeal world and the metaphysics of substance 10. The real distinction and the absolute conception of reality 11. Conclusion. Index
Biography
Andrea Christofidou is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Keble College, and Lecturer in Philosophy at Worcester College, University of Oxford, UK.
"… a rich, serious exploration of Descartes’ Meditations that focuses (as the title suggests) on the relationships between the self, reason, and freedom. Volumes of scholarship exist on the Meditations and providing a fresh, plausible reading of any such text is a challenge; happily, it is a challenge that Christofidou meets. … Self, Reason, and Freedom deserves to be widely read by the Descartes scholarly community, and it offers an invitation to contemporary thinkers to reconsider their base assumptions about freedom. There is much here to provoke fruitful debate." - Emily Thomas, MIND
"…Christofidou articulates a provocative - sometimes brilliant - vision of Descartes' metaphysics and demonstrates a great deal of unity behind the many disparate arguments in the Meditations... Descartes scholars cannot afford to ignore this book, and it offers interested non-specialists a new way to appreciate the depth and power of Descartes' insights." - C. P. Ragland, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
