Interesting 20thC Continental Philosophy debates related to Descartes?
October 5, 2015 2:30 AM Subscribe
I've been reading through Descartes works over the last few weeks and I"m wondering if there are significant debates / secondary texts that I should also read with it. For example, I just learned that there was a kind of debate between Derrida and Foucault on Descartes' Meditations. Are there other notable engagements?
I'm interested mostly in Continental or Phenomenological Philosophy rather than Analytic. (although if Wittgenstein wrote anything interesting that might be worth reading).
I believe the Foucault / Derrida debates is within the texts:
- Foucault - History of Madness
- Jacques Derrida, "Cogito and the History of Madness" (in Writing and Difference)
- Foucault - My Body, This Paper, This Fire (appendix to History of Madness)
- Foucault - Madness and the Absence of the Work
- Derrida - Structure, Sign and Discourse in the Human Sciences
Are there any other interesting engagements with Descartes that I should read after Descartes? - that are of interest in some sense independently of Descartes,.. as both Foucault and Derrida are of importance today independent of Descartes.
Is Edmund Husserl's "Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology" interesting in this respect?
I'm interested mostly in Continental or Phenomenological Philosophy rather than Analytic. (although if Wittgenstein wrote anything interesting that might be worth reading).
I believe the Foucault / Derrida debates is within the texts:
- Foucault - History of Madness
- Jacques Derrida, "Cogito and the History of Madness" (in Writing and Difference)
- Foucault - My Body, This Paper, This Fire (appendix to History of Madness)
- Foucault - Madness and the Absence of the Work
- Derrida - Structure, Sign and Discourse in the Human Sciences
Are there any other interesting engagements with Descartes that I should read after Descartes? - that are of interest in some sense independently of Descartes,.. as both Foucault and Derrida are of importance today independent of Descartes.
Is Edmund Husserl's "Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology" interesting in this respect?
In "The Age of the World Picture," Heidegger briefly spells out his problems with Descartes, mostly in the appendices. There's plenty more elsewhere, e.g. Division I of Being and Time, but you may be able to get the drift of it via that one essay.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:17 AM on October 5, 2015
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:17 AM on October 5, 2015
Kristeva and Irigaray both engage with Cartesian duality/subjectivity through the lens of continental philosophy, phenomenology, psychoanalysis and linguistics. You might also be interested in Lacan .
posted by lawliet at 7:03 PM on October 5, 2015
posted by lawliet at 7:03 PM on October 5, 2015
Best answer: These other sources are good, but probably the most important recent continental philosopher to really take up Descartes is Jean Luc Marion. A few of his classics are currently forthcoming in translation, but On Descartes' Metaphysical Prism is available in English along with a few other works by him on Descartes, including some essays.
Another important work is Susan Bordo's The Flight to Objectivity which is practically a classic in feminist interpretations of Descartes.
But if you're working on Descartes, I wouldn't restrict myself to so-called continental thinkers. There's a lot of great work being done by philosophers who are simply working on the history of philosophy and don't really fall into one side or other of the analytic/continental divide. One extremely important work I'd look at is Descartes' Metaphysical Physics by Dan Garber. It's important to overcome the 19th century/early 20th historiographical picture of Descartes as just that dude that wrote the Meditations and see Descartes as what he thought of himself as: a scientist.
Anyway, the big D is kind of specialization of mine, so if you have other research questions, feel free to MeMail me.
posted by dis_integration at 8:02 PM on October 5, 2015
Another important work is Susan Bordo's The Flight to Objectivity which is practically a classic in feminist interpretations of Descartes.
But if you're working on Descartes, I wouldn't restrict myself to so-called continental thinkers. There's a lot of great work being done by philosophers who are simply working on the history of philosophy and don't really fall into one side or other of the analytic/continental divide. One extremely important work I'd look at is Descartes' Metaphysical Physics by Dan Garber. It's important to overcome the 19th century/early 20th historiographical picture of Descartes as just that dude that wrote the Meditations and see Descartes as what he thought of himself as: a scientist.
Anyway, the big D is kind of specialization of mine, so if you have other research questions, feel free to MeMail me.
posted by dis_integration at 8:02 PM on October 5, 2015
Also, Husserl does not perform anything resembling a reading of Descartes. He's just taking Descartes as a kind of model. Don't look to him for textual interpretations. Though he is a blast to read for his own sake.
posted by dis_integration at 8:05 PM on October 5, 2015
posted by dis_integration at 8:05 PM on October 5, 2015
Garber's book, mentioned above, is superb.
Have a look at some of Gary Gutting's work on continental thought. Check the indexes for "Descartes."
posted by persona au gratin at 12:37 AM on October 6, 2015
Have a look at some of Gary Gutting's work on continental thought. Check the indexes for "Descartes."
posted by persona au gratin at 12:37 AM on October 6, 2015
A bit more: everyone has used Descartes as target practice since, well, Spinoza. So everyone has had things to say about him. We lack something like Sleigh's or Adams' books on Leibniz for Descartes--a deep and sympathetic treatment of the Modern thinker by a really good 20th-21st C philosopher. I suppose Garber's book is the closest we have.
posted by persona au gratin at 12:51 AM on October 6, 2015
posted by persona au gratin at 12:51 AM on October 6, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks for the responses. Well some of them.... - I suppose I should have been clearer about what I was after: which was suggestions of specific papers, texts that have some relation to Descartes.
i.e. dis-integration's suggestions of Susan Bordo's The Flight to Objectivity for example was good.
Just naming philosophers who are influenced by Descartes or at some point in their ouevre have engaged with his work , ie saying: "Charles Taylor", "Lacan", "Kristeva" is not exactly that helpful. I am aware of the existence of these authors, and have read stuff by some of them, and I could just go trawling their indexes looking for mentions of Descartes - but thought perhaps MF Ask could save me that trouble.
But thanks for some of the pointers. I will also check out Dan Garber's book
posted by mary8nne at 1:28 AM on October 6, 2015
i.e. dis-integration's suggestions of Susan Bordo's The Flight to Objectivity for example was good.
Just naming philosophers who are influenced by Descartes or at some point in their ouevre have engaged with his work , ie saying: "Charles Taylor", "Lacan", "Kristeva" is not exactly that helpful. I am aware of the existence of these authors, and have read stuff by some of them, and I could just go trawling their indexes looking for mentions of Descartes - but thought perhaps MF Ask could save me that trouble.
But thanks for some of the pointers. I will also check out Dan Garber's book
posted by mary8nne at 1:28 AM on October 6, 2015
Get thee hence to Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception, the best place to start for the current post-Cartesian stance in phenomenology. http://www.amazon.com/Phenomenology-Perception-Maurice-Merleau-Ponty/dp/0415834333
posted by rc3spencer at 6:04 AM on May 14, 2016
posted by rc3spencer at 6:04 AM on May 14, 2016
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posted by 15L06 at 3:03 AM on October 5, 2015