French edition in 1664: L’Homme de René Descartes. The publication
very nearly never happened. Descartes died in 1650 in Stockholm,
and his personal effects, including the manuscript for L’Homme, were
aboard a boat that sank en route from Sweden to Paris. Fortunately,
this accident occurred along the Seine River, not in the open seas, and
the manuscript was recovered intact.
Figure 2.11. Person reacting to fire, from L’Homme de René Descartes (1664).Figure 2.11 shows a drawing from L’Homme illustrating a person
reacting to fire. When the person’s foot gets close to the fire, a signal is
sent from the foot to the head. From the head another signal goes back
to the foot and generates movement, causing the person to pull away
from the fire. We execute behaviors like this all the time. Descartes