Against Cartesian Philosophy

by Pierre Daniel Huet, Thomas M. Lennon (Editor)

French philosophy in the latter half of the seventeenth century was dominated by reactions to Descartes. So influential was his philosophical legacy that it was practically impossible to write or discuss philosophy without taking a position in regard to the Cartesian worldview. Later philosophers either adapted Descartes’ system to fit other points of view, as in Malbranche’s well-known Christianized version of Cartesian philosophy in his Search After Truth, or they criticized aspects of Descartes’ philosophy that were perceived to threaten more traditional approaches to philosophy.


In the latter camp was the work presented here, the Censura Philosophiae Cartesianae, by Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721), an erudite cleric, teacher, philosopher, and scientist, and one of the most accomplished intellectuals of the age. Although his name is known to historians of the period, his main work, the Censura, while often enough mentioned, is seldom actually read. This is probably due to the fact that it was written in Latin and until now has never been translated. Thomas M. Lennon has done both historians and philosophers a great service by presenting this fully annotated translation of Huet’s magnum opus.


The Censura is the most comprehensive, unrelenting, and devastating critique of Descartes ever published. Anticipating the issues that have occupied Cartesian scholarship for the past half-century, Huet argues at length that Descartes’ philosophy fails on many his methodology of doubting; the reliability of his famous cogito ("I think, therefore I am"); clarity and distinctness as criteria of truth; his proofs for the existence of God; the circularity of Descartes’ main argument in the Meditations; and numerous other points.


Complete with a long introduction explaining the circumstances, history, and importance of the work, a brief biography of its fascinating author, and helpful scholarly annotations, this first-ever translation of Huet’s Censura brings to light an important philosophical work that has been neglected for more than three hundred years.


This is the first volume in the new series, JHP Books, published in cooperation with the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

248 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Pierre Daniel Huet was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 to 1689 and afterward of Avranches.

Reviews

[Dan DalMonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huet takes apart Cartesian dogmatism, which attempts to build a metaphysical system through reason alone. Descartes wants clear and distinct perception to be the gold standard in epistemology, but this cannot withstand skeptical doubts. Descartes begins with a program of universal doubt, in which he entertains the possibility that God is a deceiver and that therefore what seems irrefutably clear and certain to us is actually false. It is impossible to bridge the gap between our mediate perception on earth, and what may be the case in the beatific vision when we see things exactly as they are. We need to have our certitude though the authority of faith, which is the self-revelation of Truth Itself. Huet was an antiquarian in love with the ancient world, especially the skeptics, and he was offended by the Cartesians's attempt to start all over with basic principles of reason. Descartes at the beginning of his Meditations rejects all of the tradition with which he was raised, to try and establish certainty through reason.