Geraud de Cordemoy: Six Discourses on the Distinction between the Body and the Soul PDF
Preview Geraud de Cordemoy: Six Discourses on the Distinction between the Body and the Soul
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,19/3/2015,SPi Six Discourses on the Distinction between the Body and the Soul and Treatises on Metaphysics OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,19/3/2015,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,19/3/2015,SPi Géraud de Cordemoy Six Discourses on the Distinction between the Body and the Soul and Treatises on Metaphysics translated with an introduction by Steven Nadler 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,19/3/2015,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries #StevenNadler2015 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2015 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014949660 ISBN 978–0–19–871331–9 Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,19/3/2015,SPi Contents Acknowledgements vi Introduction:GérauddeCordemoyandLeDiscernement duCorpsetdel’Ame 1 GérauddeCordemoy:LifeandWorks 3 ACartesianDecade 10 LeDiscernementduCorpsetdel’AmeenSixDiscours 14 Cordemoy’sInfluence 45 TextsandTranslations 49 References 50 Six Discourses on the Distinction between the Body and the Soul ToYourMajesty 54 Preface 56 FirstDiscourse:OnBodiesandMatter 60 SecondDiscourse:OntheMotionandRestofBodies 70 ThirdDiscourse:OnNaturalandArtificialMachines 81 FourthDiscourse:OntheFirstCauseofMotion 93 FifthDiscourse:OntheUnionofMindandBody 102 SixthDiscourse:OntheDistinctionBetweenBodyandSoul 108 Treatises on Metaphysics I. WhatConstitutestheHappinessorMiseryofMinds 145 II. ThatGodDoesEverythingThatisRealinOurActions, WithoutDeprivingUsofFreedom 150 IndexofNames 155 IndexofTopics 156 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,19/3/2015,SPi Acknowledgements MythankstoUllrichLangerandSandrineRouxfortheirhelponsome finer points of French translation, and to Peter Momtchiloff at Oxford University Press for his support of this project. I am also very grateful to the two anonymous readers for Oxford University Press for their extensive comments on an early draft of this translation; I very much appreciatethetimeandefforttheygenerouslyputintohelpingmakethe translationmoreaccurateandabetterread. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,27/3/2015,SPi Introduction Géraud de Cordemoy and Le ’ Discernement du Corps et de l Ame ItwasnotlongafterthedeathofthegreatRenéDescartesin1650thathis philosophywaswellonitswaytobecomingthedominantphilosophical and scientific paradigm in Europe. There were, of course, competing intellectualtraditionsinthisperiod,includingmaterialism(represented most prominently in its Epicurean form by Pierre Gassendi, and in a non-Epicurean form by Thomas Hobbes)1 and skepticism, in both libertine (Pierre Charon, La Mothe Le Vayer) and religious (Blaise Pascal,PierreBayle)guises.2Moreover,Cartesianismwasstillaconten- tiousphilosophywithplentyofpowerfulopponents.Itwasregardedasa radicalbreakwithphilosophical, scientific,andevenreligioustradition, andcameinforagooddealofcensurefromFrenchecclesiasticandcivil authorities.Itwasalsoattackedbythemoreconservativeelementsinthe academicfaculties,whichhadlongbeenweddedtoAristotelianphiloso- phy.3 And yet, despite these difficulties, the principles of Cartesian epistemology, metaphysics, and natural philosophy informed much of intellectual life in the academies, conférences, and salons of Paris and elsewhere(andeventuallythecollegesanduniversitiesaswell)untiltheir eclipsebyNewtonianscienceintheeighteenthcentury.Eventhesessions of the official Académie des Sciences, founded by Louis XIV at the instigationofhisfinanceministerJean-BaptisteColbert,weredominated by discussions of Cartesian physics and mathematics. As Francisque 1 ForthecontrastbetweenCartesianphilosophyand17th-cent.Epicureanism(bothits Gassendistformandmoregenerally),seeLennon1993andWilson2008. 2 SeePopkin2003. 3 OnthecensureofCartesianisminthe17thcent.,seeCousin1841. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,27/3/2015,SPi INTRODUCTION Bouillier,thenineteenth-centuryauthorofamagisterialhistoryofCar- tesian philosophy,puts it(albeit with not alittle exaggeration), “during morethanahalf-century,theredidnotappearinFranceasinglebookof philosophy,therewasnotasinglephilosophicaldiscussion,thatdidnot haveDescartesasitsobject,thatwasneitherfornoragainsthissystem.”4 1666wasawatershedyearinthefortunesofCartesianphilosophyin France. Barely three years after Descartes’s works were placed on the CatholicChurch’sIndexofProhibitedBooks(doneccorrigantur—“until they are corrected”), two of the most important treatises in that philo- sophical camp were published. Bothworkswerewrittenbymembersof theprofessionalclasswhofoundtimetopursuephilosophyinaserious way, both dealt with the same general metaphysical themes, and both offerednovelandcreativesolutionstosomeresidualproblemsbequeathed bytheirintellectualmentor. Louis de La Forge (1632–66) was a physician in Saumur who had recentlyparticipatedintheposthumouspublicationofDescartes’strea- tiseonthehumanbody(theTreatiseonMan[Traitédel’homme],1664) by supplying illustrations and extensive editorial and a philosophical commentary. In January 1666,5 he published his own Treatise on the Human Mind (Traité de l’esprit de l’homme). Completed sometime in late1665butbasedonideas LaForge hadbeenentertaining forseveral years,thiswasarelativelyfaithfulbutnonethelessinnovativeandinflu- entialcontinuationofDescartes’sprojectofinvestigatinghumannature, andespeciallytheproblematicrelationshipbetweenmindandbody. Then,inthesamemonththatLaForge’sbookappeared,theParisian publisher Florentin Lambert, housed on the rue Saint Jacques, brought outa230-pagetreatise(in-12)withthetitleLeDiscernementduCorpset del’Ameensixdiscourspourserviràl’éclaircissementdelaphysique(The DistinctionBetweentheBodyandtheSoulinSixDiscourses,toservefor the elucidation of physics—I will henceforth refer to this as Six Dis- courses). Its author, a 40-year-old lawyer named Géraud (alternatively spelledGerauld)deCordemoy,wasalreadywell-knownwithinParisian Cartesian circles; the publication of the Six Discourses marked the 4 Bouillier1868,i.430. 5 The1stednborea1666publicationdate,althoughtheworkwasapparentlyprintedin Dec.1665. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,27/3/2015,SPi GÉRAUD DE CORDEMOY: LE DISCERNEMENT DU CORPS ET DE L’AME beginningofashortperiodinwhichhetookaleadingroleinthepublic defenseofthisstillrelativelynewphilosophy. Cordemoy’srelativelyconcisetreatise(atleastbyearlymodernstand- ards) represents one of the most important and influential, if unortho- dox, works in the history of Cartesianism. The Six Discourses is among theoriginalseventeenth-centurysourcesofthefamouscausaldoctrineof occasionalism, which it presented years before that doctrine’s more extensiveandcelebratedappearanceinMalebranche’sworks.Cordemoy alsoargued,contrarytosomeofthefoundationalprinciplesofCartesian metaphysics,foranatomisticconceptionofmatter.Whilehisviewswere harshly criticized by fellow Cartesians, no less a thinker than Leibniz foundhimtobeoneofthemoreperspicaciousmembersofthatmove- mentandfoundmuchtoadmireintheSixDiscourses. Géraud de Cordemoy: Life and Works Cordemoy was born in Paris in October 1626.6 He was one of four children, and the only son, of Géraud de Cordemoy (b. 1591) and his wifeNicoleBucé.Thefamilywaswell-off,anddescendedfromnobility in Auvergne. Géraud père was, for a time, Professor of Human Lan- guages at the Université de Paris, and subsequently was appointed controlleroftithesinLangres.By1667,hewasalawyerattheParlement ofParis.Géraud filswouldfollowhisfatherintoaParisianlegalcareer, althoughhisrealpassionlayelsewhere. WeknownexttonothingaboutCordemoy’slifeuntilhismarriageto Marie de Chazelles, which must have taken place sometime before December 1651, when Louis-Géraud, the first of their five children, was born. Nor do we have much information about his legal career, although he reportedly served the Parlement with some distinction (if notgreateloquence).7 However,Cordemoyseemstohavebeenconstitutionallyunsuitedfor the life of a Parisian lawyer—he apparently had little taste for the 6 October6wasthedateeitherofhisbirthorofhisbaptism;thereseemstobesome disagreementonthis.ForfullerbiographicalstudiesofCordemoy,includingexamination ofthedocumentarysources,seeBattail1973,andthe“Étudebio-bibliographique”byPierre ClairandFrançoisGirbal,inCordemoy1968,15–84. 7 ForCordemoy’slegalcareer,seeCordemoy1968,17–22.
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