Abstract:
In it I propose that the Meditations is not an essay and that its order and unity are revealed when seen as a manual for meditation on God and self. Placing Descartes in relation to the Aristotelian and Platonic traditions, as well as the tradition of Christian meditational spirituality, and bringing to light the actual structure of the text, I articulate the philosophical import of Cartesian meditation as providing the starting points for metaphysical argument. I also explore briefly the connection between the literary genre used to write philosophy and the underlying conception of the subject.

Date: 15 August 2019
Time: 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Philosophy Meeting Room (AS3-05-23)

About the Speaker:
He is currently a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia, and have been Fellow of St Johns College at the University of Cambridge. He has been a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia in 1990, at the American University in Beirut in 2004, and was NEH Distinguished Visiting Professor at SUNY College at Potsdam in 1998 and 2014. Currently, he is also professor of philosophy at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. He is the author of Cartesian Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and of Meditaciones sobre el Perú (Biblioteca Abraham Valdelomar, Huacachina, 2019). And he is ehe editor of the forthcoming volume The Cartesian Mind, Routledge, 2020, as well as the author of several papers on early modern philosophy.

All are welcome