Princess Elisabeth and the Problem of Mind-Body Interaction

Hypatia ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Tollefsen
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Body Interaction ◽  
René Descartes

This paper focuses on Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia's philosophical views as exhibited in her early correspondence with Rene Descartes. Elisabeth's criticisms of Descartes's interactionism as well as her solution to the problem of mind-body interaction are examined in detail. The aim here is to develop a richer picture of Elisabeth as a philosophical thinker and to dispel the myth that she is simply a Cartesian muse.

The Price of Truth: Reciprocity, Giving, and Generosity in the Philosophy of René Descartes

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 147-170
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
Homo Oeconomicus ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Economic Thinking ◽  
Selfish Interest

The article provides a comparison of the concept of homo œconomicus with the core theses of René Descartes’ moral philosophy. The first section draws on the work of the contemporary Western philosopher Anselm Jappe in which Descartes’ philosophy is held to be the cornerstone of the established view and current scientific definitions of homo œconomicus as the fundamental and indispensable agent of capitalistic relations. As opposed to this “common sense” position in the modern social sciences, the second section of the article builds upon Pierre Bourdieu’s Anthropologie économique (2017) to demystify the notion of homo œconomicus. The article then examines some aspects of modern philosophical anthropology that show odd traces of Descartes’ thinking and that are regularly applied in economic science as well as in the critique of economic thinking as such. These are the concepts of mutuality, giving, exchange and generosity, and they are regarded as central to the philosopher’s moral doctrine.The author concludes that the philosophical doctrine of generosity has very little in common with the bourgeois ideology of utility which implies an instrumental relationship between subjects: in Caretesian moral philosophy the Other is neither an object of influence nor a means to achieve someone’s personal goals nor a windowless monad. Generosity certainly has its economic aspects, but these do not include accumulating wealth in the bourgeois sense. It is more in the realm of the aristocratic practice of making dispensations. All throughout his life Decartes may be viewed as exhibiting a peculiar kind of nobility in which the desire to give, endow and sacrifice outweighs any selfish interest. The vigorous pursuit of well-being gives way to a quest for the leisure required to pursue intellectual activity, and care for oneself does not preclude attending to and loving the Other, whatever form it may take.

La disparition des formes aristotéliciennes. À propos d'une démarche clandestine dans les Méditations

Dialogue ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-548
Author(s):  
Georges Moyal
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
René Descartes

RÉSUMÉMême si l'appréhension que l'on peut avoir des formes aristotéliciennes résulte de ce qu'Aristote nomme «induction», rien ne nécessite que leurs composantes soient reliées entre elles de façon intelligible, comme le sont, au contraire, les propriétés de la matière. C'est ce qui porte René Descartes à en débarrasser les sciences par une démarche effectuée subrepticement dans sa VIe Méditation, et à leur substituer la matière, dénominateur commun des êtres naturels. C'est cette démarche — elle continue d’éluder certains de ses lecteurs —, que nous tentons de mettre au jour dans ce qui suit.

Beautiful Surfaces

Nuncius ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-287
Author(s):  
Eleanor Chan
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Latin Translation ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Critical Interpretation

The assumption that the Cartesian bête-machine is the invention of René Descartes (1596–1650) is rarely contested. Close examination of Descartes’ texts proves that this is a concept founded not on the basis of his own writings, but a subsequent critical interpretation, which developed and began to dominate his work after his death. Descartes’ Treatise on Man, published posthumously in two rival editions, Florentius Schuyl’s Latin translation De Homine (1662), and Claude Clerselier’s Traité de l’ homme, has proved particularly problematic. The surviving manuscript copies of the Treatise on Man left no illustrations, leaving both editors the daunting task of producing a set of images to accompany and clarify the fragmented text. In this intriguing case, the images can be seen to have spoken louder than the text which they illustrated. This paper assesses Schuyl’s choice to represent Descartes’ Man in a highly stylized manner, without superimposing Clerselier’s intentions onto De Homine.

scholarly journals Catatau, imagem e trânsito

2016 ◽  
pp. 101-122
Author(s):  
Cid Ottoni Bylaardt ◽  
Saulo de Araújo Lemos
Keyword(s):  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Maurice Blanchot ◽  
René Descartes

Resumo Em Catatau, Paulo Leminski desenha uma hipotética estadia de René Descartes no Brasil durante o domínio de Maurício de Nassau. Publicado em 1975, o romance apresenta um fluxo textual contínuo, imprevisível e heterogêneo. Descartes, nessa obra, percorre a linguagem rumo ao mundo e rumo a si mesma: poesia. Este trabalho conversa sobre dois destinos possíveis e inalcançados da viagem de Leminski: o Brasil-colônia da era dos descobrimentos, o Brasil contemporâneo ao autor. Tratando de trajetos que só se afirmam como possibilidade, este percurso crítico traz os conceitos de imagem, solidão da obra e fala errante, propostos por Maurice Blanchot em O espaço literário, e defende que os brasis produzidos a partir da tessitura literária do Catatau sejam imagens distanciadas umas das outras, bem como dos tempos e espaços que, segundo o senso comum, as teriam gerado; são uma espécie geminada de signos opacos que se dirigem àqueles dois brasis e deles também se afastam, transformando-os em algo não Brasil: linguagem, inquietação.

scholarly journals John Locke and a Rene Descartes Epitaph

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-263
Author(s):  
F. Waldmann
Keyword(s):  
John Locke ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
René Descartes
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document