Cartesianism - Encyclopædia Britannica

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Encyclopdia Britannica

Cartesianism, the philosophical and scientific traditions derived from the writings of the

French philosopher Ren Descartes [164] (15961650).

The Cartesian system

Metaphysically [165] and epistemologically, Cartesianism is a species [166] of rationalism

[167], because Cartesians hold that knowledgeindeed, certain knowledgecan be

derived through reason from innate ideas[168]

. It is thus opposed to the tradition ofempiricism [169], which originated with Aristotle [170] (384322 bce) and according to

which all knowledge [171] is based on sense experience and is therefore (because sense

experience is fallible) only probable. In practice, however, Cartesians developed

probabilistic scientific theories [172] from observation and experiment, as did empiricists.

Cartesians were forced to satisfy themselves with uncertainty in science [173] because

they believed that God [174] is omnipotent and that his will is entirely free; from this it

follows that God could, if he so wished, make any apparent truth [175] a falsehood andany apparent falsehoodeven a logical contradictiona truth. The human intellect, by

contrast, is finite; thus, humans can be certain only of what God reveals and of the fact

[176] that they and God exist. Descartes argues that one has certain knowledge of ones

own existence [177] because one cannot think without knowing that one exists; this

insight is expressed as Cogito, ergo sum [178] (Latin: I think, therefore I am) in his

Discourse on Method[179] (1637) and as I think, I am in hisMeditations [180] (1641).

In theMeditations, Descartes also argues that because we are finite, we cannot generatean idea of infinity, yet we have an idea of an infinite God, and thus God must exist to

cause us to have that idea. He also says that although we have no direct acquaintance with

the material world, not even with our own bodies, but only with ideas that represent the

material world, we cannot know the material world directly. We know it exists only

because God is not a deceiver.

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Cartesians adopted an ontological dualism [181] of two finite substances, mind [182]

(spirit or soul) and matter [183]. The essence [184] of mind is self-conscious thinking; the

essence of matter [185] is extension [186] in three dimensions. God is a third, infinite

substance [187], whose essence is necessary existence [188]. God unites minds with bodies

to create a fourth, compound substance, human beings [189]. Humans obtain general

knowledge by contemplating innate ideas [190] of mind, matter, and God. For knowledge

of particular [191] events in the world, however, humans depend on bodily motions that

are transmitted from sense organs [192] through nerves to the brain to cause sensible

ideasi.e., sensationsin the mind. Thus, for Cartesians, knowledge of the material

world is indirect.

This dualism [193] of mind and matter gives rise to serious problems concerning causalinteraction and knowledge [194]. Given that mind and matter are so radically different,

how can the body cause the mind to have sensible ideas? Likewise, how can the mind

cause the body to move? How can the mind know the material world by way of sensible

ideas, which are mental? In other words, how can ideas represent the properties of

material objects, given that mind and matter are essentially distinct? Various lines of

Cartesian philosophy developed from different answers to these questions.

Descartess philosophy is rooted in his mathematics [195]. He invented analytic

geometry[196]a method of solving geometric problems algebraically and algebraic

problems geometricallywhich is the foundation of the infinitesimal calculus developed

by Sir Isaac Newton [197](16421727) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz [198] (16461716).

The method discussed in hisDiscourse on Methodis basically an extension ofanalytic

mathematical method, which he applies to all branches of science.

Cartesian mechanism [199]

The first Cartesians were Dutch and French physicists and physiologists who attempted to

explain physical and biological phenomena solely in mechanistic termsi.e., solely in

terms of matter and its motion and especially without appeal to Aristotelian notions such


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as form [200] and final cause [201]. Descartess first disciple in the Netherlands, Henricus

Regius [202] (15981679), taught Cartesian physics [203] at the University of Utrecht

though, to Descartess chagrin, he dismissed Descartess metaphysics [204] as

irrelevant to science. Another disciple, the French theologian and philosopher Nicolas

Malebranche [205] (16381715), believed with Descartes that animals are merelymachines and thus incapable of thought or feeling; he is said to have kicked a pregnant

dog and then to have chastised critics such as Jean de La Fontaine [206] (162195), the

French writer of animal fables, for expending their emotions over such inconsiderable

creatures rather than concerning themselves with human misery. In Paris, the lectures of

Pierre-Sylvain Rgis [207] (16321707) on Cartesian physicswhich he accompanied

with spectacular demonstrations of physical phenomena such as optical illusions [208]

created such a sensation that Louis XIV

[209]

forbade them. Because Cartesianismchallenged the traditional Aristotelian science, which was supported by the Roman

Catholic Church [210], and because the church also stood behind the so-called divine

right of kings to rule, the king feared that any criticism of traditional authority might

give rise to revolution. (Later, in the 18th century, Descartess emphasis on the ability of

each individual to think for himself lent support to the cause of republicanism.)

Advancements in mechanical arts and crafts provided the practical foundation of

Cartesian mechanism[211]

. In the 17th century, mechanical inventions[212]

such asstatues that walked and talked by application of levers and pullies and organs that played

by waterpower were well known. The mathematician Blaise Pascal [213] (162362)

invented a calculating machine based on principles worked out by clock makers and

inventors of spinning and knitting machines, such as the Englishman William Lee [214].

The first inventors directly inspired by Descartes were the French craftsman Jean Ferrier,

who attempted to make hyperbolic lenses according to Descartess designs, and tienne

de Villebressieu, who with Descartess collaboration developed an improved water pump.

Mechanism was promoted by one of Descartess contemporaries, the mathematician and

philosopher Marin Mersenne [215] (15881648). Pierre Gassendi [216] (15921655)

attempted to derive it theoretically from the atomism [217] of the ancient Greek

philosopher Epicurus [218] (341270 bce), who held that reality [219] is ultimately


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constituted of atoms in motion in the void. Motion was first studied scientifically by

the Italian mathematician and astronomer Galileo [220] (15641642).

According to Descartes, the material universe [221] consists of an indefinitely large

plenum of infinitely divisible matter, which is separated into the subtle matter of space

and the denser matter of bodies by a determinate quantity of motion [222] that is imparted

and conserved by God. Bodies swirl like leaves in a whirlwind in vortices as great as that

in which the planets sweep around the Sun and as small as that of tiny spinning globes of

light. All bodily joinings and separations are mechanical, resulting from the collisions of

other moving bodies. Because the amount of motion is conserved according to the laws of

nature [223], the Cartesian material world exhibits a kind of determinism [224]. After the

initial impulse, the world evolves lawfully. If the speeds and positions of all the whirling

portions of matter in the universe at any one moment could be completely described, then

a complete description of their speeds and positions at any later time could be deduced

through calculations based on the laws of motion. Of course, only God has the infinite

intellect required for performing these calculations.

Although God is the primary cause of the existence of the material universe and of the

laws of nature, all physical eventsall movements and interactions of bodiesresult

from secondary causesthat is, from bodies colliding with each other. God stands merely

for the uniformity and consistency of the laws of nature. This led Blaise Pascal [225] to

complain that the only purpose God serves in Descartess system is to initiate motion in

the material world and to guarantee its conservation and the uniformity of nature.

Cartesianism was criticized in England by the Platonist philosopher Henry More [226]

(161487) and was popularized by Antoine Le Grand (162999), a French Franciscan,

who wrote an exposition of the Cartesians ingenious account of light [227] and colour

[228]. According to popular versions of this account, light consists of tiny spinning globes

of highly elastic subtle matter that fly through the air in straight lines and bounce likeballs at angles consistent with the optical laws of reflection and refraction. Different

colours are caused by the globes different speeds and spins, which themselves are

determined by the texture of the surfaces on which the globes are reflected, refracted, or

transmitted. The spectrum [229] of colours observed when light passes through a

triangular prism is explained by the fact that the globes pass more slowly through thicker


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parts of the prism than they do through thinner ones. The same spectrum of colours

occurs when light passes through thicker and thinner parts of raindrops, giving rise to

rainbows. Although Newton [230] and Leibniz [231] later showed that the simple

mechanistic principles underlying these accounts were incapable of explaining the forces

of gravitation and chemical bonding [232], it is noteworthy that the Cartesian theory of

light is similar in principle to the contemporary view, according to which the different

colours are produced by light at different wavelengths.

By the end of the 17th century, most of Cartesian physics had been superseded by

Newtonian mathematical physics [233]. Cartesians admitted that Descartess laws of

motion were wrong and that his principle of the conservation of motion should be

abandoned in favour of Newtons principles of the conservation of energy [234], or vis

viva (Latin: living force), and linear momentum[235]

. Although the Treatise (1671) ofJacques Rohault, a leading expositor of Cartesian physics, was translated into English in

1723 by Newtons disciple Samuel Clarke [236] (16751729) and Clarkes brother, their

corrections and annotations turned the work into an exposition of Newtonian physics.

Nevertheless, this progress would have pleased Descartes, who said that the advancement

of scientific knowledge would take centuries of work.

Mechanism versus Aristotelianism [237]

Cartesian mechanism was opposed to scholastic [238] Aristotelian science, which was

supported by both Roman [239] Catholic and Protestant theologians. These thinkers held

that, because all things are created by God with a given nature, there can be no

evolutionary development of animals or of the universe as a whole. For Aristotle, all

living things [240] possess a spirit or soul [241], which is the form [242], or organizing

principle, of the matter out of which the organism is composed, as well as the source of

its powers of growth and development, nutrition, perception, and (in humans) cognition.The soul is the essence [243], or nature, of the organism and its final causei.e., its

purpose, or goal. Thus, the development of an acorn into an oak tree is explained by the

fact that the acorn possesses a form that directs it toward this end.


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Descartes rejected both the teleological, animistic view and the related theory of alchemy

that there are vital forces in things. Cartesians denied the existence of what they

considered occult [244] or magical [245] forces, insisting instead that only God and

humans have spirits, wills, purposes, and ends. They conceived both animate and

inanimate bodies as having no goals but as simply being pushed around passively. For

Cartesians, science therefore consisted of looking not for final causes but rather for thelaws that govern the motions of bodies.

By insisting on human free will [246], Descartes placed the human soul or mind, like God,

outside deterministic nature. Because the body is a part of nature, however, the minds

evident ability to control the bodys movements is, on Cartesian assumptions,

inexplicable and miraculous and thus inconsistent with mechanistic determinism.

Ironically, in Descartess system this ability is itself an occult or magical force.

Mind, body[247]

, and humanity[248]

Most Cartesians believed that the mind and body interact. When asked how this is

possible, Rgis [249] gave the standard Cartesian reply: human beings experience the

interaction, and God can and does make it take place, even if we cannot understand how.

As for the question of how ideas represent objects, Rohault spoke for all Cartesians when

he asserted that God can make ideas represent material bodies without resembling them;no further explanation is necessary. In both of these replies, the Cartesians can be seen to

abdicate philosophy for mysticism and theology.

According to the Thomists [250] (adherents of the Aristotelian philosophical and

theological system developed by St. Thomas Aquinas [251]), the soul or mind is the form

of the body. Although for Aristotle the form of an object is inseparable from the matter of

which it is made, the Thomists held that the human soul is a substantial form that is

miraculously able to exist independently of matter and thus to survive the death of thebody. Descartes, by contrast, contended that the notion of substantial form is

contradictory, because it assumes the separate existence of something that by definition

can exist only in unity with matter. For Cartesians, the mind or soul is a substance

existing in itself, independently of matter; thus, they were able to explain immortality

[252] without having to rely on the dubious assumption that the soul-form is a kind of


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substance. This view, however, creates a serious problem concerning the ultimate nature

of human beings. According to Cartesians, sensible ideas arise from the union of mind

and body for the sole purpose of preserving the body by presenting harmful things as

painful and beneficial things as pleasurable. Human beings learn by experience what to

seek and to avoid, and the memory of these experiences is preserved in the brain. Once

the body dies, however, both the need for sensible ideas and their memory traces in thebrain are destroyed. All the soul knows of matter after death is the general idea of

extension. Because all bodily associations and memories are eliminated, however,

individual personality is lost; each human being survives death only as an impersonal

soul, identical to all other bodiless souls. Like the notion that animals are mere machines,

the Cartesian conclusion that the sensible manifestations of this life are neither continued

nor remembered in the next was unpopular.

Science and religion

In addition to the dualism of mind and matter in Cartesian metaphysics, there is a more

general dualism in Cartesianism as a whole between a rationalist metaphysics and

epistemology [253], which entails the existence of innate ideas of mind, matter, and God

and the possibility of obtaining certain knowledge through reason, and an empiricist (and

mechanistic) physics, according to which scientific knowledge, which is never certain, is

gradually accumulated through observation and experience of the material world.

Descartess insistence on the possibility of certain knowledge of Gods existence has ledsome commentators to present him primarily as an apologist for Christianity. Others,

however, have argued that he was really an atheist and a materialist who made arguments

for Gods existence only to protect himself from persecution by the church.

Although Descartes publicly denied an interest in theology [254], in letters he offered

mechanistic explanations of transubstantiation [255]. According to the Thomistic account

of this mystery, the forms of bread and wine are miraculously sustained as substantial

forms while their matter is replaced by Christs flesh and blood. Rohault appealed to theCartesian view that sensible ideas are caused by configurations of the parts of material

bodies to argue that, if bread and wine were replaced by flesh and blood whose parts had

exactly the same configurations, the flesh and blood would look, feel, and taste like bread

and wine. Although Rohaults account still requires the miraculous replacement of bread

and wine by flesh and blood, it does not rely on the self-contradictory notion of


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substantial form.

A deterministic Cartesian ethics [256] was developed by the Flemish Calvinist

philosopher Arnold Geulincx [257] (162469). In his view, although one can do only what

God has willed, one is free to accept what one must do willingly or unwillingly. Virtue

consists in the humble, diligent, and obedient acceptance of the justice of Gods decrees

in the light of reason, whereas sin and evil result from an egotistic (and futile) stand

against God. This Stoic ethics [258], with its affinity to Calvinist and Jansenist

predestinarianism, is as deterministic as Cartesian physics. It does, however, contradict

Descartess claim that the human will is free not just to accept or reject the rightness of

predetermined bodily actions but also to choose and cause particular actions.

Malebranche [259] and occasionalism [260]

The most important philosophical work stemming directly from Descartess writings is

The Search After Truth[261] (167475), by Malebranche. His position, known as

occasionalism [262], was adopted also by Geulincx and the French philosopher Graud de

Cordemoy [263]. Malebranche was convinced by the argumenturged most strongly by

the French skeptic Simon Foucher [264]that, because they are so radically different,

Cartesian mind and matter cannot interact. Malebranche held that, on every occasionwhen human bodies [265] interact with the world, God provides the appropriate sensible

ideas in human minds. And, on every occasion when human minds will that their bodies

move, God makes them move. Thus, there is no direct causal interaction between mind

and body; there are only separate but parallel sequences of mental and material events

intermediated by God.

Foucher also argued that, because sensible ideas cannot resemble material things, they

cannot represent them either, and they thus cannot be a source of knowledge of thematerial world. In other words, because sensible ideas such as colours, tactile feelings,

sounds, odours, and tastesas they are experienced by the mindare utterly unlike the

properties of material bodies, which are limited to size, shape, position, and motion or

rest, it follows that these ideas cannot give knowledge of the material world as it really is.

In response, Malebranche, like Descartes before him, simply denied that ideas must


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resemble their objects to represent them. Regarding the possibility that one might have

sensible ideas of a nonexistent world, Malebranche said tersely that the first chapter of

Genesis assures the existence of the material world. As to how human ideas of this world

are true, Malebranche offered the Platonic view that ideas of all things reside in God and

that, on appropriate occasions, God illuminates these ideas for human observation. Thus,

human beings see all things in God and can rest assured in his goodness.

Despite Descartess influence on his thought, Malebranche denied that he was a

Cartesian. Unlike Descartes, he argued that introspection gives no knowledge of the

essence of the mind. This view prompted the English empiricist philosopher John Locke

[266] (16321704) to suggest that, for all human beings know, matter might be able to

think. All Cartesians opposed this possibility, however, because the essential difference

between mind or soul and body supports the Christian doctrine that the human soul

survives the bodys death.

Later philosophers

The rationalist metaphysics of the Dutch-Jewish philosopher Benedict de Spinoza [267]

derives from Descartes. Spinoza wrote hisEthics [268] (1677) in mathematico-deductive

form, with definitions, axioms, and derived theorems. His metaphysics, which is

simultaneously monistic[269]

, pantheistic, and deistic, holds that there is only onesubstance, that this one substance is God, and that God is the same as the world. The one

substance has an infinite number of attributes, each of which expresses the totality of the

world (or God), though the only attributes known to human beings are mind and matter.

All attributes are parallel [270] in every respect; that is, for every idea expressed in the

mental attribute [271], there is a parallel body in the material attribute, and vice versa.

Thus, though mind and matter do not interact, for Spinoza as for Malebranche they

appear to do so.

The other great figure of late 17th-century rationalism [272], Leibniz [273], also gave a

parallelistic answer to the problem of mind-body interaction. Leibniz asserted that the

universe is constituted of an infinite number of simple, indivisible, extensionless

substances, which he called monads [274]. Each monad reflects, or perceives, the entire


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universe from its own point of view. Although monads do not causally interact with each

other, a preestablished harmony between them, created and maintained by God, ensures

that the appearance [275] of interaction is maintained at the level of material objects.

The Irish radical empiricist and bishop George Berkeley [276] (16851753) developed

another monistic metaphysical system. Berkeley managed to avoid the problem of

mind-body interaction by taking the extreme step of denying the existence of matter.

Bodies, according to him, are only collections of sensible ideas that are presented to the

human mind in lawful order by God. Because there is no material world, there is also no

skeptical problem about whether ideas truly represent physical reality. Instead, all ideas

are known directly.

By contrast, the English materialist philosopher Thomas Hobbes [277] (15881679) did

away with mind as a mental substance by asserting that only matter exists. For Hobbes,

the mind is the same as the brain, and thoughts or ideas consist of nothing more than

motions of brain matter. Because the mind is material, it is capable of causing bodily

motions in response to sensory stimuli; and because ideas are material, they can resemble,

and thus represent, material bodies.

The way of ideas and the self[278]

Two important themes in the history of modern philosophy can be traced to Descartes.

The first, called the way of ideas [279], represents the attempt in epistemology to

provide a foundation for our knowledge of the external world [280] (as well as our

knowledge of the past and of other minds [281]) in the mental experiences of the

individual. The Cartesian theory of knowledge [282] through representative ideas is

rooted in Galileo [283]s distinction between real, or primary [284], properties of material

bodiessuch as size, shape, position, and motion or restwhich were thought to exist inbodies themselves, and sensible, or secondary [285], propertiessuch as colours, tactile

feelings, sounds, odours, and tasteswhich were thought to exist only in the mind. As

Descartes assumes in his theory of light and as Locke [286] later argued, secondary

properties of bodies do not exist in bodies themselves but are the result of the interaction


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of distinctive arrangements of primary properties with the human sense organs.

According to Locke, however, our sensible ideas of the size, shape, position, and motion

or rest of particular bodies resemble their corresponding primary properties and so can be

a source of knowledge about them. Nevertheless, against this claim it is still possible to

raise the skeptical objection that, because mental and material substances are radically

distinct, and because all ideas are mental, no idea, not even an idea of a primary property[287], can resemble a material object.

As noted above, Berkeleys phenomenalism [288] is one heroic solution to this skeptical

problem: Bodies are known directly simply because bodies are nothing more than

bundles of sensible ideas. Another response, also heroic, is that of the Scottish

philosopher David Hume [289] (171176), who accepted skeptical conclusions and

contented himself with attempting to explain the psychological origins of our

unjustifiable belief in an external world [290], in the continuity of past and future, and in

an enduring self that is the unchanging subject of mental experience. Early in the 20th

century, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell [291] (18721970) and his student the

Austrian-born Ludwig Wittgenstein [292] (18891951), as well as the German founders of

logical positivism [293] Moritz Schlick [294] (18821936) and Rudolf Carnap [295]

(18911970), construed aspects of the physical world as logical constructions of

sensible ideas, which they called sense data [296]. The German philosopher Edmund

Husserl [297] (18591939) attempted to establish a science of sensible ideas, which he

called phenomenology [298]. Later in the century, Russell, following the American

pragmatist philosopher and psychologist William James [299] (18421910), suggested

that both mind and matter could be constructed out of what he called neutral monads.

[300] All of these systems can be considered steps along the Cartesian way of ideas [301].

The second theme to derive from Descartes is an emphasis on the nature of the self, or

ego. The roots of this idea extend back to the Neoplatonic philosophy of St. Augustine[302] (354430), who argued that when one is thinking, one necessarily exists. The idea

also was central to the developmental idealism [303] of the German philosopher G.W.F.

Hegel [304] (17701831), who conceived of human history as the gradual coming to

consciousness of a World Soul [305]. The metaphysics of Martin Heidegger [306]


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(18891976), with its focus on the being of the self, or Dasein, strongly influenced the

existentialism [307] of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre [308] (19051980), who

argued that each individual chooses his own nature. Sartre also upheld the Cartesian

position that the self is essentially conscious by rejecting the theory of the unconscious

[309] proposed by the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud [310] (18561939).

Contemporary influences

Some aspects of Cartesian metaphysics and epistemology were still strongly defended in

the 20th century. The American linguist Noam Chomsky [311], for example, has argued

that human beings are born with an innate knowledge of the underlying structures of all

learnable languages, even of languages that have never been spoken. The Nobel Prize-

winning Australian physiologist John C. Eccles [312] (190397) and the Britishprimatologist Wilfred E. Le Gros Clark (18951971) developed theories of the mind as a

nonmaterial entity. Similarly, Eccles and the Austrian-born British philosopher Karl

Popper [313] (190294) advocated a species of mind-matter dualism, though their

tripartite division of reality into matter, mind, and ideas is perhaps more Platonic than

Cartesian.

One of the strongest contemporary attacks on traditional Cartesian dualism is that of the

British philosopher Gilbert Ryle [314] (190076). In The Concept of Mind[315] (1949),

Ryle dismisses the Cartesian view as the fallacy of the ghost in the machine, arguing

that the mindthe ghostis really just the intelligent behaviour of the body. A different

criticism has been advanced by the American pragmatist Richard Rorty [316]

(19312007), who claims (in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature [1979] and other

works) that the Cartesian demand for certain knowledge of an objectively existing world

through representative ideas is a holdover from the mistaken quest for God. That is,

whereas certain knowledge of Gods existence may be necessary for salvation, to seek

certainty [317] in science and in the ordinary affairs of life is both hopeless and

unnecessary. Philosophy in the Cartesian tradition, Rorty contends, is the 20th centurys

substitute for theology and should, like the concept of God, be gently laid to rest.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the nature of consciousness [318] became a topic


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of particular interest to philosophers and neuroscientists. The problems faced by these

researchers were essentially the same as those encountered by all philosophers since

Descartes who have attempted to understand the nature of the mind. Although the seat of

consciousness is universally accepted to be the central nervous system [319], and in

particular the brain [320], it seems impossible that a material object like the brain could

give rise to the mental experiences that human beings have when they are said to be

conscious. In other words, it seems impossible to give an account of these experiences

that, on the one hand, captures what they are really like for human beings and, on the

other, is consistent with the strictly physical vocabulary of the scientific theories in terms

of which the brain is understood.

Some philosophers have responded to this problem in a manner reminiscent of Descartes,

who argued that, although mind-body interaction seems to be impossible, human beings

experience it, and God can make it happen. The British philosopher Colin McGinn, forexample, is among a group of thinkers, known as mysterians, who claim that, although

we know that the conscious mind is nothing more than the brain, it is simply beyond the

conceptual apparatus of human beings to understand how this can be the case. Other

philosophers, such as Daniel Dennett [321] and Paul Churchland, have made valiant

attempts to develop strictly materialist accounts of consciousness, but their efforts so far

have not been widely accepted. A third line of response is represented by the American

philosopher John Searle [322], who argues that the root of the problem is the dichotomy

between the old Cartesian concepts of mind and matter, which he claims are bothinherently incompatible and outmoded, given modern physics. Searle believes that

consciousness, like digestion, is a biological phenomenon [323] (albeit a very complex

one) that can in principle be fully explained in scientific terms.

Assessment

Descartess influence on Western philosophy[324]

is so pervasive that all Westernphilosophers, even those who reject Cartesianism, can be said to be Cartesians, just as

they can be said to be Greeks: their positions are essentially responses to problems posed

by Descartes. Descartes also stands at the beginning of modern mathematics through his

contribution to the development of the infinitesimal calculus [325] by Newton and

Leibniz. Descartess skeptical, mathematical method underpins modern science; his


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conception of rationality informed modern Western ideas of what it means to be a human

being until nearly the end of the 20th century; and his intense desire to control nature in

the service of humanity has been the ultimate secular goal of modern science since the

time of the Enlightenment [326].

Richard A. Watson

Additional Reading

General studies

Many of the classic studies of Cartesianism are in French. They include Francisque

Bouillier,Histoire de la philosophie cartsienne, 3rd ed., 2 vol. (1868, reprinted 1987);

Joseph Prost,Essai sur latomisme et loccasionalisme dans la philosophie cartsienne

(1907); Josef Bohatec,Die cartesianische Scholastik in der Philosophie und reformierten

Dogmatik des 17. Jahrhunderts (1912, reprinted 1966); and E.J. Dijksterhuis et al.,Descartes et le cartsianisme hollandais (1951).

Other general works are Norman Smith, Studies in the Cartesian Philosophy (1902,

reprinted 1987), which covers the failure of rationalism from Descartes through Kant;

Genevive Lewis (Genevive Rodis-Lewis),Le Problme de linconscient et le

cartsianisme, 2nd ed. (1985); Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and John W. Davis

(eds.), Problems of Cartesianism (1982); and Albert G.A. Balz, Cartesian Studies (1951,

reprinted 1987).

Cartesian science

The development of Cartesian physics is studied in Paul Mouy,Le Dveloppement de la

physique cartsienne, 16461712 (1934, reprinted 1981); Edwin Arthur Burtt, The

Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1932, reprinted 1980); and E.J.

Aiton, The Vortex Theory of Planetary Motions (1972). Noam Chomsky, Cartesian

Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought(1966, reprinted 1983), is a

historical exposition and an extended argument for the claim that Cartesian rationalism is

the best general framework for the study of the mind. Leonora Cohen Rosenfield, FromBeast-Machine to Man-Machine: Animal Soul in French Letters from Descartes to La

Mettrie, new and enlarged ed. (1968), is an exploration of 17th- and 18th-century debates

about whether animals have souls, showing Descartess important influence on modern

physiology. Also relevant are Daniel Garber,Descartes Metaphysical Physics (1992),

andDescartes Embodied(2001); and Dennis Des Chene, Physiologia: Natural


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Philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian Thought(1996), and Spirits and Clocks:

Machine and Organism in Descartes (2001).

Metaphysics and epistemology

Useful studies include Theo Verbeek,Descartes and the Dutch: Early Reactions to

Cartesian Philosophy, 16371650 (1992); Steven M. Nadler (ed.), Causation in EarlyModern Philosophy: Cartesianism, Occasionalism, and Preestablished Harmony (1993);

Steven Nadler,Arnauld and the Cartesian Philosophy of Ideas (1989); and Thomas

Lennon, The Battle of the Gods and Giants: The Legacies of Descartes and Gassendi,

16551715 (1993). Interpretive scholarship is offered in Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Revolt

Against Dualism, 2nd ed. (1960), a study of reactions against Cartesian metaphysics; J.S.

Spink, French Free-Thought from Gassendi to Voltaire (1960, reissued 1969); Henri

Gouhier, Cartsianisme et augustinisme au XVIIe sicle (1978); Richard H. Popkin, The

History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza, rev. and expanded ed. (1979); and

Richard A. Watson, The Breakdown of Cartesian Metaphysics (1987, reissued 1998).

Works on the mind-body problem as it concerns consciousness include Ned Block, Owen

Flanagan, and Gven Gzeldere, The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates

(1997); David J. Chalmers, The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory

(1996); Paul M. Churchland,Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to

the Philosophy of Mind, rev. ed. (1988); Brian Cooney (ed.), The Place of Mind(2000);

Antonio R. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of

Consciousness (1999); Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained(1991); Karl R.Popper and John C. Eccles, The Self and Its Brain (1977, reissued 1998); George Lakoff

and Mark Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to

Western Thought(1999); and John R. Searle,Minds, Brains, and Science, new ed. (1992),

and The Rediscovery of the Mind(1992).

Richard A. Watson

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Documents

Cartesianism - Encyclopædia Britannica