Writing Cogito

Hassan Melehy is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Vermont.

• AcknowledgmentsPart I Beginning1. Institution2. The Cartesian Web-Derrida and FoucaultPart II Montaigne's Writing3. Montaigne's "I"4. The Essay: The Writing of the SubjectPart III Descartes's Cogito5. The Method: The Writing of the Subject6. Descartes's BooksPart IV Ending7. The Rest of the CogitoNotesBibliographyIndex

"By carefully probing the Cartesian text, Melehy exposes the cunning ways in which Descartes, in order to fix the notions of 'modernity' and 'subjectivity,' conceals the extent to which his own work is grounded in Montaigne's. Melehy demonstrates why it was crucial for Descartes that his work be defined as philosophy and that Montaigne's be defined as literature. Furthermore, he demonstrates why this arbitrary and in many ways invalid distinction has become an unquestioned principle in the 'modern' institution whose function it is to organize knowledge, i.e., the university. This book is brilliantly conceived and executed." — Robert D. Cottrell, Ohio State University"When Melehy deals with passages that have frustrated scholars for centuries he often allows himself to be extremely creative—at times, quite poetic. I admired his elucidation of the logic and value of Montaigne's ubiquitous Latin quotations as well as many pages on Descartes and the cogito. Informed by the thought of scholars postmodern and modern, Melehy's personal reading and commentary on Montaigne's and Descartes' texts bring forth new and all-important insights on the institution of the modern subject." — Elisabeth Caron, Indiana University North