Meditations on First Philosophy — René Descartes
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Six metaphysical meditations Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body Author : René Descartes Contributor : Thomas Hobbes Translator : William Molyneux Release date : February 20, 2023 [eBook #70091] Language : English Original publication : United Kingdom: Printed by B. G. for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1680 Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70091 Credits : Jonathan Ingram, Thanks to Special Collections, Princeton University Library and Special Collections and Archives, Glucksman Library, University of Limerick for additional images, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF And that Mans MIND is really distinct from his BODY. Written Originally in Latin By RENATUS DES-CARTES . Hereunto are added the OBJECTIONS made against these Meditations By THOMAS HOBBES Of Malmesbury . With the AUTHORS Answers. All Faithfully Translated into ENGLISH, with a short Account of Des-Cartes’s Life . By WILLIAM MOLYNEUX . London , Printed by B.G. for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1680. Some Books sold by John Lawrence , at the Angel in Cornhill , near the Royal Exchange . A Collection of Letters for the improvement of Husbandry and Trade, intended to be continued Monthly, by John Houghton , fellow of the Royal Society , ’tis designed that every Letter shall be usefull to Mankind, and by degrees for most persons of both Sexes. The Merchant Royal , (a very pleasant Sermon) Preached before the King at White-Hall , upon the Nuptials of an Honourable Lord and his Lady, in Quarto, price 6 d. Humane Prudence , or the Art by which a man may raise himself and Fortune to Granduer, by A. B. , the second Edition, with the Addition of a Table; in Twelves, price Bound, 1 s. THE TRANSLATORS Preface . TO THE READERS. Had honor or applause and not the publick advantage of English Readers been the design of this Undertaking, the consideration of the common Fate of Translations had discouraged Me from permitting this even to have seen the light; for meer Versions do alwayes carry with them this Property, that if not well done they may much disgrace, but if well, not much commend the doers. And certainly I might well have expected the same chance, had this been the Translation of an History, Play or Romance; wherein there is requisite not onely a bare version but a conformation of Idiom and language, manner and customary expression; But the nature of this present Work will not admit of the like liberty, and therefore, I hope, amongst Judicious Readers it may be exempt from the common Fate of Translations; for if we look upon it as a Philosophical or Metaphysical Tract, or rather as (really it is) a Physico-Mathematical Argumentation, we shall find that a great strictness of Expression is requisite to be observed therein. So that had a Translator taken upon him to use his own liberty of Phrase, he would thereby have endanger’d the sense and force of the Arguments; for Politeness of language might as well be expected in a Translation of Euclide as in this. And all that are acquainted with this famous Authors design, do very well know, that it was his intention in these Meditations Mathematically to demonstrate , that there is a God , and that mans mind is incorporeal . And it was his opinion, that metaphysicks may as clearly be demonstrated as mathematicks, as witness his expression in the Dedicatory Epistle of this Work to the Sorbone Doctors, Eas (Rationes scilicet) quibus hic utor certitudine & evidentiâ Geometricas æquare, vel etiam superare existimem ; That he reputed his Arguments used in these Meditations, to equal if not excell Geometrical certainty. And this, I suppose, is sufficient to make the Reader, not expect herein any smoothness of phrase or quaintness of Expression; what is here delivered in English is immediately taken, as it is naturally in the Original. The words, we hope, may be apposite enough, and fit to express what is here designed, and I think it a derogation from the Authors skill to draw the Picture of his mind in any other Colours, than what his own Copy expresses. Thus far in vindication of the Philosophical plain stile and rough Language of the following Translation. I shall add a line or two, first relating to the Readers, secondly of the Author, and lastly of the Meditations themselves, together with the Motives which excited me to this Work. As to the Readers, ’tis, I suppose, so evident that candour of mind, and freedome from prejudice is requisite to all that desire to advantage themselves by reading other mens notions, that it need not be here insisted on with much earnestness; yet considering the Antiquity of this subject, and the novelty of the Arguments here produced, it seems to be more than ordinarily requisite for an impartial perusal of the ensuing Tract. Neither are the following Meditations to be slightly passed over, but with diligence and attention to be read; for as in mathematical demonstration, the careless missing of any one single Position may render the Conclusion obscure and sometimes inconsequent, so in these metaphysical Demonstrations, which (as, before has been noted from the illustrious Author thereof) for certainty do equal, if not excel Geometrical Propositions, the slight attention to any one particular Argument may frustrate the design of the whole discourse. The Reasoning therefore here being close and solid, and (as in Mathematicks) the knowledge of the latter depending on the knowledge of what went before, ’tis the duty of every Reader seriously to attend the Particulars, as also the connexion of the whole. Let h