The Rationalists: Descartes: Discourse on Method & Meditations; Spinoza: Ethics; Leibniz: Monadology & Discourse on Metaphysics by Rene Descartes (PDF)

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Founded in the mid-17th century, Rationalism was philosophy’s first step into the modern era. This volume contains the essential statements of Rationalism’s three greatest figures: Descartes, who began it; Spinoza, who epitomized it; and Leibniz, who gave it its last serious expression.

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Editorial Reviews: From the Publisher Founded in the mid-17th century, Rationalism was philosophy’s first step into the modern era. This volume contains the essential statements of Rationalism’s three greatest figures: Descartes, who began it; Spinoza, who epitomized it; and Leibniz, who gave it its last serious expression. From the Inside Flap Founded in the mid-17th century, Rationalism was philosophy’s first step into the modern era. This volume contains the essential statements of Rationalism’s three greatest figures: Descartes, who began it; Spinoza, who epitomized it; and Leibniz, who gave it its last serious expression. From the Back Cover Founded in the mid-17th century, Rationalism was philosophy’s first step into the modern era. This volume contains the essential statements of Rationalism’s three greatest figures: Descartes, who began it; Spinoza, who epitomized it; and Leibniz, who gave it its last serious expression. About the Author Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the French philosopher and mathematician, is generally regarded as the founder of modern philosophy.Benedict de Spinoza (1632–1677) was born in Amsterdam, where his orthodox Jewish family had fled from persecution in Portugal. Expelled from the synagogue for his heterodox philosophy, he identified God with nature and denied the possibility of an act of creation.Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz (1646 – 1716) German philosopher, mathematician, and political adviser, important both as a metaphysician and as a logician and distinguished also for his independent invention of the differential and integral calculus. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a great collection. I think it should be purchased with its sister book, “The Empiricists.” I didn’t see any deals on both.

⭐This is a great book in helping understand the concepts of the subject so that you can do well in class!

⭐Good book. Prompt service. Thank you.

⭐Everything as represented.

⭐The people giving this book favorable reviews have likely not even read this book. Rather, they just see Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz and assume excellence. Ignore the other reviewers, please.The book compiles the works by Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz; and all three philosophers are from non-English speaking countries (Descartes is French, Spinoza is Dutch, and Leibniz is German). As each philosopher hails from a non-English speaking country, it becomes necessary to acquire a good translation if you want to peruse their works.Therein lies the problem with this book. The translation are downright terrible in terms of concision and clarity.I tried to read the Discourse on Method by Descartes using this book, and I didn’t understand anything because the sentences are too long, convoluted, and passively-voiced. The translator for Descartes here is “John Veitch,” who was a Scottish poet/writer in the late 19th century. I went to my library to find another translation of Descartes (by Norman Kemp Smith in the 1950s), and I was able to go through the Discourse on Method with comfort. There are many other translations available (e.g. Cottingham, Rubin, Kennginton), so there is no excuse to waste your time with Veitch’s effort.Again, avoid this book because the translations are incomprehensible. I would strongly suggest finding Modern Library’s “The European philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche” (ISBN 9780375758041), which not only contains all of the works in this book (Discourse on Method, Meditations, The Ethics, The Monadology) in a comprehensible translation but also other work by Kant, Neitzche, and Rosseau.

⭐In fall 1988, I took a course titled History of Modern Philosophy, and for course texts, we used _The Rationalists_ and _The Empiricists_. We just went straight through them, author by author, beginning with Descartes. It was so much fun, except on exam days. IMO, _The Rationalists_ is a handy little book to give oneself a survey of 17th Century Continental thought. Descartes was French, Spinoza Portuguese, and Leibniz German. Does epistemological rationalism work as a method? Eventually I discarded logic in favor of sense experience — and downright intuition sometimes. But that was just me. This book is excellent as an introduction to modern philosophy, and someday the reader may come to treasure it as I do. Happy reading!

⭐The Anchor volume “The Rationalists” is a very handy one-volume compilation of the central texts of 17th Century Continental philosophy. Included are Descartes’ “Discourse on Method” and “Meditations,” Spinoza’s “Ethics,” and Leibnitz’s “Discourse on Metaphysics” and the “Monadology.” The only really famous text excluded here is Spinoza’s “De Emendatione,” but the inexpensive Prometheus Books paperback of the “Ethics” includes that. This handsome, portable paperback allows one to explore the development of Rationalist thinking chronologically from Descartes to Leibnitz without suffering the bloody-chunks omissions imposed by most undergrad philosophy texts. And the absence of scholarly commentary thankfully allows the reader to immerse herself fully in the preoccupations of these thinkers without constant hectoring about how they “failed”; instead, each of these multifaceted thinkers can prod the reader on their own terms. This is a wonderful volume not only for the philosopher or student of philosophy, but for theologians, historians, and even artists– these three have much to say that is still pertinent for any reflective person.

⭐The contents of this book relates to the long debate between rationalism and empiricism. For a book on empiricism, see Dunn, John with J.O. Urmson, and A.J.Ayer (1992) “The British Empiricists;” New York: Oxford University Press. Kant tried to solve this debate with his Critique of Pure Reasoning. But, Kant failed.The debate came to an end when a number of linguists discovered (in the 1920s) that ’empirical data are primarily symbolic.’ This discovery says that facts are not theory neutral. So, even police facts must be challenged to be sure that police theories of a crime agree with the crime facts. The same is true about a newspaper or TV report.This book on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz does not discuss the nature of rationalism and how it fits in the development of knowledge. I also found this book to be short on the thoughts of Leibniz, who challenged Newton’s physical world. I recommend that readers expand their knowledge of Leibniz’s work by seeking other sources of information. Including Leibniz’s monadology in this book was important because his monads are becoming important in the current developments of modern creation theories.

⭐Good book, difficult translation

⭐Very good for budding philosophers and people who want to deal intensively with philosophical thoughts.

⭐Covers classic material from famous modern philosophers. Pretty hard undertaking for the average reader. Better to have a guide to assist in uncovering key concepts.

⭐A good copy, well bound, straight cuts. No noticeable flaws.

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