DESCARTES, René Discours de la Methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les Sciences. Plus La Dioptrique, les Meteores, la Mechanique, et la Musique, Qui sont des essais de cette Methode... Paris, Angot 1668.
4to. 303 [recte: 305] pp., (23) pp., 127 pp., (1) p. With repeated printer's divice and many woodcut diagrams. Contemporary leather (spine renewed [using the original material], corners restored), spine gilt, gilt stamped title to spine. Third edition of the discours, édition originale de la Méchanique, 1st French edition of the theory of music. Guibert listed this edition of the Discours as being the third; he did not take into account the edition of 1657, which is only known through 2 examples. The first edition of the Discours le la methode published in 1637 - publication was anonymous, not least as a result of the sentence against Galileo of 1632 - which is acknowledged as being the first scientific-philosophic work written in French. It forms, at the same time, the basis for rationalistic mechanism in the 18th century as well as for later scientific models. By way of critical discussion of mainstream philosophical tradition in the Discours he presents the "individualist gesture" in contrast to this tradition: in the "World as a Book" the reflective individual finds the rules concerning this world and of thought. La Dioptrique, les Meteores, la Mechanique and also the theories of music are applications of the methodological discussion. In 1618 Descartes had written the compendium musicae for the mathematician Isaak Beekmann and had presented him with the manuscript, together with his request that he keep it a secret; he arranged for its first publication in 1650. Descartes is regarded as the founder of "rationalised theory of emotions "; music can create emotions (in this context he was preoccupied with the degree of consonants in the major third and syncopation), knowledge of musical theory allows one the possibility of being able to control these emotions. These aspects are then pursued in more detail in Passions de l'âme. Original end-papers preserved and bound in, new ones added. Front fly-leaf (old one) with old ownership entry. Slightly browned, some lvs. more heavily, minor spotting. A good copy. Guibert 18/4, 215 und 185/5; Tchemerzine IV, 312 (La Mechanique).
Euro5300
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