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Descartes: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy Julia Annas Simon Critchley THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION John Henderson William Doyle CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh GLOBALIZATION paul E. P. Sanders Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig HEGEL Peter Singer PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Samir Okasha HINDUISM Kim Knott PLATO Julia Annas HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne KANT Roger Scruton Psychology Gillian Butler and KIERKEGAARD Freda McManus Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE MACHIAVELLI Catriona Kelly Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith MATHEMATICS SCHIZOPHRENIA Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway Ralph A. Grifﬁths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN H. C. G. Matthew John Morrill NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford Available soon: THE TUDORS John Guy FUNDAMENTALISM TWENTIETH-CENTURY Malise Ruthven BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Habermas Gordon Finlayson Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling HIEROGLYPHS WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Penelope Wilson AFRICAN HISTORY HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN EVOLUTION ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Bernard Wood THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BUDDHIST ETHICS Paul Wilkinson Damien Keown JAZZ Brian Morton CHAOS Leonard Smith MANDELA Tom Lodge CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead MEDICAL ETHICS CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Tony Hope CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE THE MIND Martin Davies Robert Tavernor Myth Robert Segal CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko NATIONALISM Steven Grosby CONTEMPORARY ART PERCEPTION Richard Gregory Julian Stallabrass PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION THE CRUSADES Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot Christopher Tyerman PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards Derrida Simon Glendinning THE RAJ Denis Judd DESIGN John Heskett THE RENAISSANCE Dinosaurs David Norman Jerry Brotton DREAMING J. Allan Hobson RENAISSANCE ART ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Geraldine Johnson THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FREE WILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi Tom Sorell Descartes A Very Short Introduction 1 For Alison 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in OxfordNew York AucklandBangkokBuenos AiresCape TownChennai Dar es SalaamDelhiHong KongIstanbulKarachiKolkata Kuala LumpurMadridMelbourneMexico CityMumbaiNairobi São PauloShanghaiTaipeiTokyoToronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Tom Sorell 1987 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 1987 as an Oxford University Press paperback Reissued 1996 First published as a Very Short Introduction 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographic rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 13:978–0–19–285409–4 ISBN 10:0–19–285409–7 9108 Typeset by ReﬁneCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall Contents Texts and Translations ix List of Illustrations xi 1 Matter and Metaphysics 1 2 The Discovery of a Vocation 6 3 One Science, One Method 10 4 ‘Absolutes’, Simple Natures, and Problems 13 5 Roaming about in the World 20 6 Paris 25 7 The Suppressed Physics 30 8 Three Specimens of a Method 37 9 A New ‘Logic’ 45 10 The Need for Metaphysics 51 11 The Meditations 56 12 Doubt without Scepticism? 61 13 The Theologians and the God of Physics 65 14 Ideas 71 15 The Mind 77 16 Body 82 17 The Physics made Public 88 18 The ‘Other Sciences’ 94 19 Last Days 97 20 Descartes’s Ghost 101 Further Reading 107 Index 111 Texts and Translations References are made by volume and page number to the standard edition of Descartes’s writings by Adam and Tannery (Paris: Vrin, 1964–75); ‘7. 12’ means page 12 of volume 7 of Adam and Tannery. In general, translations are taken from J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch, The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). Adam and Tannery volume numbers appear in this translation at the beginnings of works, Adam and Tannery page numbers in the margins. Volume numbers followed by ‘A’ refer to a Latin text, by ‘B’ to a French text. Extended quotations from Descartes’s letters are taken from Anthony Kenny’s translation and selection, Descartes: Philosophical Letters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970).