Descartes: New texts/new perspectives

Conference organized by Daniel Garber (2017-2018 Paris IAS fellow), with the support of the Institut des Sciences juridique et philosophique de la Sorbonne (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and the Laboratoire Métaphysique, histoires, transformation, actualité (Faculté de lettres, Sorbonne Université)

Presentation

Descartes is one of the towering figures of early modern philosophy and science. This conference explores some recent manuscript discoveries that significantly enhance our view of his career and accomplishments. Included are discussions of a recently discovered manuscript of an early version of his treatise on scientific methodology, the Regulae ad directionem ingenii, a manuscript copy of the Meditations in its pre-publication state, and recent discoveries in connection with a new scholarly edition of Descartes’ correspondence.

Program

14h00   Regulae ad directionem ingenii: the Cambridge manuscript
Richard Serjeantson (Cambridge University)
Michael Edwards (Cambridge University)

15h45   Meditationes: the Toulouse manuscript
Jeremy Hyman (University of Arkansas)

17h30   Descartes’ correspondence: a new edition
Erik-Jan Bos (Radboud University)
Theo Verbeek (University of Utrecht)
Roger Ariew (University of South Florida)