Roger Ariew

Douglas M. Jesseph

Theo Verbeek

Dennis Des Chene

Tad M. Schmaltz

The A to Z of Descartes and Cartesian Philosophy includes a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, and cross-reference dictionary entries Descartes's writings, concepts, and findings, as well as entries on those who supported him, those who criticized him, those who corrected him, and those who together formed one of the major movements in philosophy, Cartesianism.

The A to Z of Descartes and Cartesian Philosophy

Dennis Des Chene explores how Western philosophers understood life and the soul in the early modern period—before Descartes radically changed how the universe was conceived. Life's Form is a detailed analysis of the often overlooked work of the Jesuit commentators on Aristotle whose writings dominated Western European science and the academy until the mechanistic revolution. Des Chene considers the work of scholastic writers such as Suárez and the Coimbrans, who provided thorough and sometimes profound studies of Aristotle's definitions of the soul and of life.Life's Form is not restricted only to questions relevant to the human case, such as the immortality of the soul. Des Chene analyzes what might be called the protobiology of late Aristotelians: the theory of living things in general, of their powers, and of the relation between soul and body in all organisms. His mastery of doctrinal subtlety offers insight into conceptual issues of renewed relevance to the philosophy of biology.

Late Aristotelian Conceptions of the Soul

Life's Form

Sixteenth-century Aristotelianism was the culmination of four centuries of commentary and criticism. Physiologia is one of the first books to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to that tradition in natural philosophy. In an incisive and readable treatment, Dennis Des Chene illuminates the continuities and disruptions between medieval and modern philosophy and promotes a new understanding of the philosophical setting in which modern notions of science emerged.

Natural Philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian Thought

Physiologia

Although the basis of modern biology is Cartesian, Descartes's theories of biology have been more often ridiculed than studied. Yet, Dennis Des Chene demonstrates, the themes, arguments, and vocabulary of his mechanistic biology pervade the writings of many seventeenth-century authors. In his illuminating account of Cartesian physiology in its historical context, Des Chene focuses on the philosopher's innovative reworking of that field, including the nature of life, the problem of generation, and the concepts of health and illness. Des Chene begins by surveying works that Descartes would likely have encountered, from late Aristotelian theories of the soul to medical literature and treatises on machines. The Cartesian theory of vital operations is examined with particular attention to the generation of animals. Des Chene also considers the role of the machine-model in furnishing a method in physiology, the ambiguities of the notion of machine, and of Descartes's problem of simulation. Finally, he looks at the various kinds of unity of the body, both in itself and in its union with the soul. Spirits and Clocks continues Des Chene's highly regarded exploration—begun in his previous book, Life's Form—of the scholastic and Cartesian sciences as well as the dialogue between these two worldviews.

Dennis Des Chene

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