"Meditations" - читать интересную книгу автора (Descartes Rene)

Meditations on First Philosophy

Rene Descartes

1641

Copyright: 1996, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. This
file is of the 1911 edition of The Philosophical Works of
Descartes (Cambridge University Press), translated by
Elizabeth S. Haldane.1

Prefatory Note To The Meditations.

The first edition of the Meditations was published in
Latin by Michael Soly of Paris "at the Sign of the Phoenix" in
1641 cum Privilegio et Approbatione Doctorum. The Royal
"privilege" was indeed given, but the "approbation" seems to
have been of a most indefinite kind. The reason of the book
being published in France and not in Holland, where Descartes
was living in a charming country house at Endegeest near
Leiden, was apparently his fear that the Dutch ministers might
in some way lay hold of it. His friend, Pere Mersenne, took
charge of its publication in Paris and wrote to him about any
difficulties that occurred in the course of its progress
through the press. The second edition was however published
at Amsterdam in 1642 by Louis Elzevir, and this edition was
accompanied by the now completed "Objections and Replies."2
The edition from which the present translation is made is the
second just mentioned, and is that adopted by MM. Adam and
Tannery as the more correct, for reasons that they state in
detail in the preface to their edition. The work was
translated into French by the Duc de Luynes in 1642 and
Descartes considered the translation so excellent that he had
it published some years later. Clerselier, to complete
matters, had the "Objections" also published in French with
the "Replies," and this, like the other, was subject to
Descartes' revision and correction. This revision renders the
French edition specially valuable. Where it seems desirable
an alternative reading from the French is given in square
brackets.

Elizabeth S. Haldane

TO THE MOST WISE AND ILLUSTRIOUS THE

DEAN AND DOCTORS OF THE SACRED

FACULTY OF THEOLOGY IN PARIS.