Descartes’ System of Natural Philosophy

Stephen Gaukroger9780521005258, 0521005256, 0521808979

Towards the end of his life, Descartes published the first four parts of a projected six-part work, The Principles of Philosophy. This was intended to be the definitive statement of his complete system of philosophy, dealing with everything from cosmology to the nature of human happiness. Stephen Gaukroger examines the system, and reconstructs the last two parts, “On Living Things” and “On Man”, from Descartes’ other writings. He relates the work to the tradition of late Scholastic textbooks which it follows, and also to Descartes’ other philosophical writings.

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Table of contents :
Contents……Page 6
Preface……Page 8
References to Descartes’ works……Page 9
Introduction……Page 10
1 Before the Principia……Page 14
‘Physico-mathematics’……Page 15
The Regulae……Page 16
Le Monde and L’Homme……Page 19
La Discours and Les Essais……Page 33
Metaphysics and the legitimation of natural philosophy……Page 37
La Recherche de la vérité versus the Principia……Page 39
2 The Principia and the Scholastic textbook tradition……Page 41
The problem of natural philosophy……Page 44
Theology, metaphysics, and natural philosophy……Page 52
The unity of Aristotelian philosophy: the textbook tradition……Page 57
Content and ordering……Page 63
The structure of the Principia……Page 67
The project of the Principia……Page 73
Doubt and knowledge……Page 78
Essence and existence……Page 82
Clarity and distinctness……Page 88
The metaphysics of substance……Page 94
Matter theory and mechanics……Page 102
Material extension……Page 106
The nature of motion……Page 112
The first two laws of motion……Page 123
The third law of motion……Page 130
The mechanisation of matter theory: solids and fluids……Page 139
5 Principia, Part III: The visible universe……Page 144
Celestial motions……Page 145
Planetary motion……Page 151
Celestial matter and the transmission of light……Page 155
Vortex theory……Page 159
Comets, planets, and moons……Page 162
6 Principia, Part IV: The Earth……Page 170
The nature of the Earth……Page 171
The formation of the Earth……Page 175
Air, water, earth, and fire……Page 178
Magnetism and related phenomena……Page 182
7 Principia, Part V: Living things……Page 189
Basic physiology……Page 193
Developmental physiology……Page 199
Animal psycho-physiology……Page 205
Affective states in animals……Page 222
8 Principia, Part VI: Man……Page 224
Cognition……Page 225
The fragmentation of the soul……Page 231
The philosopher as sage……Page 245
The morality of philosophers……Page 248
Bibliography……Page 256
D……Page 264
L……Page 265
R……Page 266
W……Page 267