Descartes’ Meditative Turn: Cartesian Thought as Spiritual Practice

Christopher J. Wild

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Descartes’ Meditative Turn

Cartesian Thought as Spiritual Practice

Christopher J. Wild

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2024

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About this book

Why would René Descartes, the father of modern rationalist philosophy, choose "meditations"—a term and genre associated with religious discourse and practice—for the title of his magnum opus that lays the metaphysical foundations for his reform of all knowledge, including mathematics and sciences? Why did he believe that the immortality of the soul and the existence of God, which the Meditations on First Philosophy set out to demonstrate, can only be made self-evident through meditating? These are the question that Christopher Wild's book answers.

Descartes discovered the "foundations of a marvelous science" through a dramatic conversion in southern Germany in the winter of 1619. The spiritual and cognitive exercises, derived from ancient philosophy and the Christian meditative tradition, which Descartes deployed in the Meditations, enable readers to discover metaphysical truths with the same degree of self-evidence with which Descartes did during his own conversion. Descartes' meditative turn, Wild argues, brings to a culmination a lifelong preoccupation with the practice or craft of thinking, known as Cartesian method. By joining meditation to method the Meditations becomes the founding document for a Cartesian "art of turning," a new practice of both thought and life.

Author / Editor information

Christopher Wild is Professor of Germanic Studies, Theater & Performance Studies and Associate Faculty in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

"Wild's approach yields new interpretations of Descartes's understanding of the nature of evidence, his proofs for the existence of God, and even the example of the ball of wax.... Highly recommended."—C. D. Kay, CHOICE --- "Wild's Descartes' Meditative Turn is certain to prompt its own readers to turn once more to Descartes' Meditations. This wide-ranging intellectual history reveals afresh the depth of influence and ingenuity subtending Descartes' encounters with the genre and practice of meditation." —Andrea Gadberry, New York University --- "This brilliant book examines the self-reflexive 'meditative matrix' cultivated by Descartes as a proving ground for the emergence of the cogito and the discovery of the 'marvelous science.' Wild draws attention to crucial but understudied features of the Cartesian philosophy." —Walter Melion, Emory University --- "This is a groundbreaking, dazzling, thought-provoking work that proposes a completely new reading of a—if not the—foundational text of modern Western philosophy. I cannot remember the last time a book so profoundly transformed my understanding of a canonical text." —Hall Bjørnstad, Indiana University Bloomington

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Descartes’ Meditative Turn and the Tradition of Spiritual Exercises Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
1 Founding First Philosophies: Descartes’ Conversion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	27
2 Method and Meditation: The Cartesian Art of Turning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	74
3 The Discernment of Ideas and the Evidence of the Cogito Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	121
4 Cartesian Ceroplastics: Meditating the Mediality of the Mind Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	161
5 Adversio, Animadversio, and Attentio: Turning toward God Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	187
6 “To Gaze with Wonder and Adoration”: Contemplatio Dei and Meditative Ascent Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	222
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	259
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	261
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	307
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	331

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

March 27, 2024

eBook ISBN:

9781503638600

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

352

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503638600

eBook ISBN: 9781503638600

Keywords for this book

Descartes; meditation; spiritual exercise; practice; conversion; method

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Descartes’ Meditative Turn

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

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