This is a collection of Paul Hoffman's wide-ranging essays on Descartes composed over the past twenty-five years. The essays in Part I include his celebrated "The Unity of Descartes' Man," in which he argues that Descartes accepts the Aristotelian view that soul and body are related as form to matter and that the human being is a substance; a series of subsequent essays elaborating on this interpretation and defending it against objections; and an essay on Descartes' theory of distinction. In (...) the essays in Part II he argues that Descartes retains the Aristotelian theory of causation according to which an agent's action is the same as the passion it brings about, and explains the significance of this doctrine for understanding Descartes' dualism and physics. In the essays in Part III he argues that Descartes accepts the Aristotelian theory of cognition according to which perception is possible because things that exist in the world are also capable of a different way of existing in the soul, and he shows how this theory figures in Descartes' account of misrepresentation and in the controversy over whether Descartes is a direct realist or a representationalist. The essays in Part IV examine Descartes' theory of the passions of the soul: their definition; their effect on our happiness, virtue, and freedom; and methods of controlling them. (shrink)

This is a dictionary of Descartes and Cartesian philosophy, primarily covering philosophy in the 17th century, with a chronology and biography of Descartes's life and times and a bibliography of primary and secondary works related to Descartes and to Cartesians.

Purpose. The purpose of the investigation is to outline the main points of Hume’s interpretation of the basic anthropological project of the era based on radical cultural transformations of the early modern age; to represent a modern vision of Hume's anthropology as a response to the demand of the era and necessity to complete its basic project. Methodology. The research was based on phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. Originality. Contemporary understanding of the position of anthropological project in Hume's philosophy is regarded (...) as unsatisfactory by the author. Development of the basic project as anthropological is rooted in scientific revolution and needs to be continued and completed. Contemporary prevalence of deanthropogical versions of Hume's philosophy is the result of underestimated significance of the concept of nature in the broad sense. According to the philosopher's texts, heuristic potential of Hume's position is emphasized by the author. The modern version of the basic project in the early modern age is criticized and demands significant changes to become anthropological. Findings. Modern perception of Hume’s philosophy as an anthropological project is unsatisfactory in terms of historical and philosophical science and needs detailed analysis. In order to understand the conditions of anthropological project significance, it is advisable to focus on: a) scientific revolution and the necessity to complete it; b) determine the role of the concept of nature in its broad sense. Nowadays the way of Hume's rethinking of the basic project of modern philosophy as insufficiently anthropological is quite heuristic. Empiricism, dogmatism, superstition and skepticism are the manifestations of the latter. For Hume, the era was as an incomplete anthropological project and its legacy as the most complete form of explication. Today the interest in the phenomenon of a human provides a reasonable basis to define that modern period is related to the era of Hume, and therefore, to give some reasoning for his remarkable ideas as New Hume's era. (shrink)

This edited volume features 20 essays written by leading scholars that provide a detailed examination of L’Homme by René Descartes. It explores the way in which this work developed themes not just on questions such as the circulation of the blood, but also on central questions of perception and our knowledge of the world. Coverage first offers a critical discussion on the different versions of L'Homme, including the Latin, French, and English translations and the 1664 editions. Next, the authors examine (...) the early reception of the work, from the connection of L'Homme to early-modern Dutch Cartesianism to Nicolas Steno's criticism of the work and how Descartes' clock analogy is used to defend two different conceptions of the articulation between anatomical observations and functional hypotheses. The book then goes on to explore L'Homme and early-modern anthropology as well as the how the work has been understood and incorporated into the works of scientists, physicians, and philosophers over the last 150 years. Overall, readers will discover how the trend over the last few decades to understand human cognition in neuro-physiological terms can be seen to be not something unprecedented, but rather a revival of a way of dealing with these fundamental questions that was pioneered by Descartes. (shrink)

Descartes' morals are often considered a marginal epiphenomenon not only with respect to his metaphysics, but also in regard to the ethical theories that preceded and followed it, that is, broadly Aristotle's eudaimonism, Kantian deontologism and Mill's utilitarianism. I argue in this paper that Descartes' morals do not play a merely subaltern role in his metaphysics, as is often claimed. I first present the specificity and the evolution of his morals by giving an account of his provisory and perfect morals. (...) Second I argue that a close reading of important passages from his correspondence and his treatise on the Passions of the Soul indicates that Descartes develops a third kind of morals based on the virtue-passion of generosity. The last part of the paper discusses Descartes' own treatment of the passions and suggests against the standard view that Descartes' concern is also the veri hominess , and ultimately the generosi hominess . South African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 25(2) 2006: 177-188. (shrink)

Descartes took the notion of the cultivation of the self seriously, drawing on the physiology of L’Homme as well as ethical precepts drawn from writers such as Seneca. Enlightenment thinkers such as Diderot were engaged in the same anthropological project, but they rejected Descartes’ account as being too individualistic.