Descartes: The Story of a Mind / Gianluca Mori.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mori, Gianluca, author.

Series:

New Research in the History of Western Philosophy ; 13.

Religious Studies, Theology and Philosophy E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

New Research in the History of Western Philosophy ; 13

Religious Studies, Theology and Philosophy E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (278 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2025.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Descartes: The Story of a Mind offers a rigorous, historically grounded reappraisal of René Descartes’s intellectual development. Rejecting fixed labels and anachronistic formulae, Mori portrays a thinker in motion—shaped by uncertainty, dialogue, and evolving contexts. Drawing on lesser-known texts, correspondences, and polemics, the book foregrounds the fragmentary, dialectical nature of Descartes’s philosophy. From early influences to the unity expressed in the tree of knowledge, the book reconstructs a dynamic Cartesian trajectory that bridges metaphysics, science, and ethics, revealing a mind perpetually negotiating its boundaries amid the shifting debates of the seventeenth century.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half Title

Series Title

Title Page

Copyrights Informations

Contents

Preface

Bibliographical Notice

1 A Long Apprenticeship

1 A Mature Student and a Jurist manqué

2 A Master: Isaac Beeckman

3 In Search of Himself: Journeys, Dreams, Projects

4 The Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii

5 Intuition, Deduction, Simple Natures

2 The 1630 Crisis and The World

1 The Creation of Eternal Truths

2 The Laws of Nature

3 The Fable of the World

4 Back to Reality: the Galileo Affair

3 The Discourse on the Method

1 A Successful Preface

2 Four Rules and a General Principle

3 A Provisional Morality

4 The Body Machine

5 Science and Society

4 The Meditations

1 The Reasons for Doubting

2 The Discovery of the Subject

3 From the Cogito to God

4 Freedom and Error

5 The Essence of Bodies and the "Ontological" Proof

6 The Body, the Mind, the Human Being

5 Objections and Replies

1 Scholastic Resistance: Caterus

2 Father Mersenne, or the Shadow Objector

3 Hobbes and Descartes: Duelling Philosophers

4 A Cartesian Theologian: Antoine Arnauld

5 Gassendi and Descartes: Flesh and Spirit

6 Father Bourdin and the Jesuit Reaction

6 The Principles of Philosophy

1 Analysis and Synthesis

2 A New Theory of Substance

3 Matter, Motion and Rest

4 Galileo's Revenge: Science and Εxperience

5 From Apostle to Apostate: Henricus Regius

7 The Fruits of the Tree

1 Mechanics, Medicine and Morality

2 Elizabeth, the Princess Philosopher

3 The Passions of the Soul

4 A "Physicist" of Human Nature

5 From Wonder to Desire

6 Virtue, Happiness, Generosity

Conclusion: Descartes's Mind/Descartes's Body

A Descartes Chronology

1596

1607

1616

1618

1619

1620

1621-1624

1625-1627

1628

1629

1630

1633

1637

1639.

1640

1641

1642

1643

1644

1645

1646

1647

1648

1649

1650

Bibliography

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-74167-4

9789004741676

OCLC:

1561175726

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004741676 DOI