Descartes: A Biography

c CUNYB/Clarke     December, :

Metaphysics in a Hornet’s Nest (–) 

either one without attracting unwelcome notice from theologians. There

was one exception to this self-imposed restriction – the brief summary in

Part IVof theDiscourse on Methodof his earlier work from.Apart

from that, Descartes devoted all his intellectual energies in the earlys

to completingThe World.

WhenThe Worldwas withdrawn and theEssayspublished as a pro-

visional substitute, many sympathetic critics, such as Plemp and Morin,

and especially his unwavering admirers such as Huygens and Mersenne,

pleaded with him to release the hidden treasures of his physics so that

they could appreciate better the foundations of the scientific explanations

developed in theEssays.France was not subject to the Inquisition, and

the United Provinces were even less so. It is not clear, therefore, why

Descartes resisted these encouraging requests.Claude Saumaise specu-

lated that, had he not been such a devout Catholic, he would have pub-

lished his metaphysics long before then. Saumaise may have exaggerated

Descartes’ allegiance to the Catholic Church, by confusing fear of censure

with religious faith. However, whatever the reason, Descartes held firm to

his original decision, prompting Mersenne to write: ‘There is no way to

get hold of his physics and metaphysics, where his foundations are.’

Nonetheless, ten years after his original draft essay, Descartes returned

to metaphysics while still refusing to reveal the basic principles of physics

that remained hidden inThe World.Itwas unclear how metaphysics could

provide a ‘foundation’ for physics or whether such foundational stud-

ies might require a number of layers, the deepest of which would be

metaphysics.The occasion for the change of mind may have been his

reading of the French edition of Edward Herbert’sOn Truth.When

Mersenne first sent him a copy of this book in August,hewas too

busy to read it, but he found time to reopen it two months later and to give

his first impressions to the donor.Since Descartes notoriously read only

what interested him and politely refused to read most of the books that he

received as gifts, the mere arrival ofOn Truthcannot have been the real

reason for his renewed interest in metaphysics. His first reaction to the

book was that Herbert was discussing a subject on which he (Descartes)

claimed to have worked ‘all my life’ (ii.)–alifelong interest that is

certainly not reflected in the frequency or detail with which metaphysics

is mentioned in his correspondence. However, he must have given some

thought to metaphysical questions before, because, within a month

of its first mention, he began to refer to a draft essay that was almost