Philosophy Faculty Member Receives Fellowship to Study Early Draft of Descartes’ Meditations

Courtesy of Jeremy Hymans
A philosophy faculty member discovered an early draft of one of Descartes’ best known works.

Jeremy Hyman, lecturer in the Department of Philosophy in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue his study of an early draft of Descartes’ Meditations on the First Philosophy.

Hyman discovered this draft in the catalogue of a public library in Toulouse, France, and he traveled to Toulouse to study the manuscript. By comparing differences between the manuscript and the published edition of the Meditations, and based on what he knew about the history of the book, Hyman concluded that the Toulouse book was a pre-publication manuscript. It was a common practice for philosophers to send these early drafts of their work to peers, in search of feedback.

 “It’s a remarkable find,” said Daniel Garber, professor of philosophy at Princeton and author of several books on Descartes. “This is the only manuscript copy of the Meditations or any other Descartes publications that has been located.”

Read more about Hyman’s discovery on the Research Frontiers website.

This story originally appeared in the University of Arkansas’ Newswire publication. Please visit news.uark.edu for more stories like this.