The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism

Description

The Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism comprises fifty specially written chapters on René Descartes (1596-1650) and Cartesianism, the dominant paradigm for philosophy and science in the seventeenth century, written by an international group of leading scholars of early modern philosophy. The first part focuses on the various aspects of Descartes's biography (including his background, intellectual contexts, writings, and correspondence) and philosophy, with chapters on his epistemology, method, metaphysics, physics, mathematics, moral philosophy, political thought, medical thought, and aesthetics. The chapters of the second part are devoted to the defense, development and modification of Descartes's ideas by later generations of Cartesian philosophers in France, the Netherlands, Italy, and elsewhere. The third and final part considers the opposition to Cartesian philosophy by other philosophers, as well as by civil, ecclesiastic, and academic authorities. This handbook provides an extensive overview of Cartesianism - its doctrines, its legacies and its fortunes - in the period based on the latest research.

About the Author

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy, Evjue-Bascom Professor in Humanities, and Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has been teaching since 1988. He has been the editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association. Nadler previous publications include A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (Princeton, 2011), The Philosopher, the Priest and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes (Princeton, 2013), Spinoza: A Life (Cambridge, 1999/2018, winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award), Rembrandt's Jews (Chicago, 2003, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam (Yale, 2018), and the graphic book Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy (Princeton, 2017) with his son Ben Nadler.

Tad Schmaltz is Professor of Philosophy and James B. and Grace J. Nelson Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His areas of specialization are the history of early modern philosophy, the history and philosophy of early modern science, and the relations among philosophy, science and theology in the early modern period. He has as special interests the variety of early modern "Cartesianisms"; the influence of late scholasticism on early modern thought; the nature of the "Scientific Revolution"; and early modern versions of substance-mode metaphysics, theories of mereology, and views of causation and freedom.

Delphine Antoine-Mahut is Professor of Philosophy at the ENS Lyon, France. Her research focuses on early modern philosophy, especially on the relations between metaphysics and physiology; on the historiography of early modern philosophy, in order to highlight the genesis of our current representations of modernity ; and on the various receptions of cartesianism, particularly on the crossed genesis of an official spiritualist model and an unofficial empiricist one.

Contributors:

Fred Ablondi, Hendrix College
Igor Agostini, University of Salento
Jean-Pascal Anfray, École Normale Supérieure (Paris)
Delphine Antoine-Mahut, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
Dan Arbib, École Normale Supérieure (Paris)
Roger Ariew, University of South Florida
Jean-Robert Armogathe, École Pratique des Hautes Études-Sorbonne (Paris)
Jean-Christophe Bardout, University of Rennes 1 
Giulia Belgioioso, University of Salento
Erik-Jan Bos, Radboud University
Hélène Bouchilloux, University of Lorraine
Claudio Buccolini, National Research Council, Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale 
Europeo e Storia delle Idee
Hadley Cooney, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Frédéric de Buzon, University of Strasbourg
Antonella Del Prete, Tuscia University
Minhea Dobre, University of Bucharest 
Philippe Drieux, Rouen University
Philippe Hamou, Paris Nanterre University
Gary Hatfield, University of Pennsylvania
Helen Hattab, University of Houston
Michael Hickson, Trent University
Sarah Hutton, University of York
Andrew Janiak, Duke University
Douglas Jesseph, Univeristy of South Florida
Denis Kambouchner, Pantheon-Sorbonne University (Paris 1)
Thomas M. Lennon, University of Western Ontario
Antonia Lolordo, University of Virginia
Gideon Manning, Claremont Graduate University
Sébastien Maronne, University of Toulouse
Christia Mercer, Columbia University, New York
Denis Moreau, University of Nantes
Steven Nadler, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lex Newman, University of Utah
Lawrence Nolan, California State University
Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin, Jean Moulin University Lyon 3
C. P. Ragland, Saint Louis University
Alice Ragni, University of Lucerne
Jasper Reid, King's College London
Laurence Renault, Paris-Sorbonne University / Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi
Mitia Rioux-Beauine, University of Ottawa
Sophie Roux, École Normale Supérieure (Paris)
Todd Ryan, Trinity College
Andrea Sangiacomo, University of Groningen
Tad M. Schmaltz, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Lisa Shapiro, Simon Fraser University
Justin E. H. Smith, Paris Diderot University (Paris 7)
Wiep van Bunge, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Han van Ruler, Erasmus University Rotterdam 
Theo Verbeek, Utrecht University

Table of contents

Part I: Descartes
1: Philosopher Defying the Philosophers: Descartes's Life and Works, Han van Ruler
2: What Descartes Read: His Intellectual Background, Roger Ariew
3: Descartes's Correspondence and Correspondents", Theo Verbeek and Erik-Jan Bos
4: Descartes on the Method of Analysis, Lex Newman
5: Descartes's Metaphysics, Lawrence Nolan
6: Mind and Psychology in Descartes, Gary Hatfield
7: Descartes's Mechanical But Not Mechanistic Physics, Helen Hattab
8: Descartes's Mathematics, Sébastien Maronne
9: Descartes and Medicine, Gideon Manning
10: Descartes on Freedom, C. P. Ragland
11: Descartes and the Passions, Denis Kambouchner
12: Descartes's Philosophical Theology, Igor Agostini
13: Descartes's Moral Philosophy, Laurence Renault
14: Descartes, Politics and 'True Human Beings, Delphine Antoine-Mahut
15: The Compendium Musicae and Descartes's Aesthetics, Frédéric de Buzon
Part II: The Cartesians
16: Mersenne: Questioning Descartes, Claudio Buccolini
17: Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia as a Cartesian, Lisa Shapiro
18: Claude Clerselier and the Development of Cartesianism, Tad M. Schmaltz
19: Louis La Forge on Mind, Causality and Union, Philippe Drieux
20: He has created a schism in philosophy': The Cartesianism of Géraud de Cordemoy, Fred Ablondi
21: Antoine Arnauld: Cartesian Philosopher?, Denis Moreau
22: The Ambiguities of Malebranche's Cartesianism, Jean-Christophe Bardout
23: The Prince of Cartesian Philosophers: Pierre-Sylvain Régis, Antonella del Prete
24: Jacques Rohault and Cartesian Experimentalism, Mihnea Dobre
25: Robert Desgabets and the Supplement to Descartes's Philosophy, Tad M. Schmaltz
26: The Early Dutch Reception of Cartesianism, Wiep van Bunge
27: The Curious Case of Henricus Regius, Tad M. Schmaltz
28: Geulincx and the Quod Nescis Principle: A Conservative Revolution, Andrea Sangiacomo
29: Johannes Clauberg and the Search for the Initium Philosophiae: The Recovery of (Cartesian) Metaphysics, Alice Ragni
30: What is Cartesianisma Fontenelle and the Subsequent Construction of Cartesian Philosophy?, Mitia Rioux-Beaulne
31: Cartesianism in Britain, Sarah Hutton
32: Italy Did Not Want to Be Cartesian': And For Good Reason, Giulia Belgioioso
33: 33.  "The Creation of Eternal Truths: Issues and Context", Dan Arbib
34: Cartesianism and Eucharistic Physics, Jean-Robert Armogathe
35: Cartesianism and Feminism, Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin
Part III: The Critics
36: Pascal and Port-Royal, Hélène Bouchilloux
37: Gassendi as Critic of Descartes, Antonia Lolordo
38: Optics, First Philosophy and Natural Philosophy in Hobbes and Descartes, Douglas Jesseph
39: Henry More, Supporter and Opponent of Cartesianism, Jasper Reid
40: Margaret Cavendish vs. Descartes on Mechanism and Animal Souls, Hadley Cooney
41: Spinoza, Descartes and the 'Stupid Cartesians', Steven Nadler
42: Simon Foucher and Anti-Cartesian Skepticism, Michael W. Hickson
43: Locke on Cartesian Bodies and Cartesian Souls, Philippe Hamou
44: Anne Conway's Response to Cartesianism, Christia Mercer
45: Leibniz and Descartes, Jean-Pascal Anfray
46: A Cartésien Manqué: Pierre Bayle and Cartesianism, Todd Ryan
47: The Condemnations of Cartesian Natural Philosophy Under Louis XIV (1661-1691), Sophie Roux
48: Pierre-Daniel Huet, Skeptic Critic of Cartesianism and Defender of Religion, Thomas M. Lennon
49: Gabriel Daniel: Descartes Through the Mirror of Fiction, Justin Smith
50: Physics and Metaphysics in Descartes and Newton, Andrew Janiak