The Cambridge Companion to Descartes

Descartes occupies a position of pivotal importance as one of the founding fathers of modern philosophy; he is, perhaps the most widely studied of all philosophers. In this authoritative collection an international team of leading scholars in Cartesian studies present the full range of Descartes’ extraordinary philosophical achievement. His life and the development of his thought, as well as the intellectual background to and reception of his work, are treated at length. At the core of the volume are a group of chapters on his metaphysics: the celebrated ‘Cogito’ argument, the proofs of God’s existence, the ‘Cartesian circle’ and the dualistic theory of the mind and its relation to his theological and scientific views. Other chapters cover the philosophical implications of his work in algebra, his place in the seventeenth-century scientific revolution, the structure of his physics, and his work on physiology and psychology.

• The most authoritative, accessible companion to Descartes’ thought available

List of contributors; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Descartes’ life and the development of his philosophy Geneviève Rodis-Lewis; 2. Descartes and scholasticism: the intellectual background to Descartes’ thought Roger Ariew; 3. The nature of abstract reasoning: philosophical aspects of Descartes’ work in algebra Stephen Gaukroger; 4. Cartesian metaphysics and the role of the simple natures Jean-Luc Marion; 5. The Cogito and its importance Peter Markie; 6. The idea of God and the proofs of his existence Jean-Marie Beyssade; 7. The Cartesian circle Louis E. Loeb; 8. Cartesian dualism: theology, metaphysics, and science John Cottingham; 9. Descartes’ philosophy of science and the scientific revolution Desmond Clarke; 10. Descartes’ physics Daniel Garber; 11. Descartes’ physiology and its relation to his psychology Gary Hatfield; 12. Descartes on thinking with the body Amélie Oksenberg Rorty; 13. The reception of Descartes’ philosophy Nicholas Jolley; Bibliography; Index.