
Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen
The Defense of Reason in Descartes's Meditations
- 288 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On Bullshit, a landmark account of Descartes, reason, and truth
In this classic work, philosopher and bestselling author Harry Frankfurt provides a compelling analysis of the question that not only lies at the heart of Descartes's Meditations, but also constitutes the central preoccupation of modern philosophy: on what basis can reason claim to provide any justification for the truth of our beliefs? Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen provides an ingenious account of Descartes's defense of reason against his own famously skeptical doubts that he might be a madman, dreaming, or, worse yet, deceived by an evil demon into believing falsely.
Frankfurt's masterful and imaginative reading of Descartes's seminal work not only stands the test of time; one imagines Descartes himself nodding in agreement.
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Table of contents
- Table of Contents
- ForewordRebecca Goldstein
- Preface
- One THE FIRST MEDITATION
- 2The General Overthrow of Belief
- 3The Criterion of Doubt
- 4 The Perception of the Physical World
- 5 The Strategy of the First Meditation
- 6 Simple and Universal Things
- 7 Mathematics in the First Meditation
- 8 Mathematics and the Omnipotent Deceiver
- 9 Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen
- Two REASON AND ITS VALIDATION
- 10 Sum
- 11 Sum res cogitans
- 12 Clear and Distinct Perception
- 13 Objections to Descartes’s Rule of Evidence
- 14 Memory and Doubt
- 15 The Validation of Reason
- 16 Truth and Reality: