Abstract

In this paper I will expose the contents of the Compendium musicae in the light of the Cartesian philosophy. Firstly, I try to comprehend the text as a theory of music based on the nature of sound. To that end, it is important to show the features of the Cartesian philosophy that are already present in the text, such as deductibility, mathematization and mechanism. Secondly, I also try to show the presence of a philosophical problem widely discussed in other parts of Descartes´s work, namely, that of dualism and communicability of substances. In this regard I want to point out that the relation between thought and extension appears in the Compendium as the confession of a supposition. In order to comprehend the sense of this confession I offer an analysis of this text in the light of Descartes’s work. Finally, I propose an alternative interpretation of Cartesian dualism and of the role of musical theory in Cartesian philosophy.