Book Club Potluck - Descartes

Mark will host our discussion of "Discourse on Method" and "Meditations on First Philosophy" by Rene Descartes. Mark suggested these two short classics.

Discourse on the Method is a philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. Discourse on the Method is one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy, and important to the development of natural sciences.

Meditations on First Philosophy is a philosophical treatise by René Descartes first published in 1641. The book is made up of six meditations, in which Descartes first discards all belief in things that are not absolutely certain, and then tries to establish what can be known for sure. He wrote the meditations as if he had meditated for six days: each meditation refers to the last one as yesterday. (In fact, Descartes began work on the Meditations in 1639.) One of the most influential philosophical texts ever written, it is widely read to this day.

If you would like to host one of our events and you have a book in mind, please let me, Karl Kiefer, or Mark Hopkins know, and we will create a Meetup event for your book, assuming your suggested title qualifies as a book on philosophy in our view. Our criteria are somewhat vague, but let's just say that we are not interested in books on the supernatural. We are interested in books that you might find in a syllabus for a college philosophy course. You can always email me at camkruger@gmail.com if you have questions and/or suggestions.

As always, it's essential that everyone who comes to the meeting reads the book in its entirety and brings something for the potluck.

Happy reading!