Descartes: A Biography

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

 Descartes: A Biography

completed. The initial plan was to print twenty or thirty copies of the

draft and to circulate it privately for comments.

The part of the mind that is most useful for mathematics, namely the imagination, is

more of a hindrance than a help in metaphysical speculations. I now have in my hands

aDiscoursein which I tried to clarify what I had previously written about this subject.

It will consist of no more than five or six sheets of print, but I hope that it will contain

a significant part of metaphysics. In order to realize that goal better, my plan is to have

printed only twenty or thirty copies and to send them to twenty or thirty of the most

wise theologians that I can find, to get their opinion of it and to find out from them

what I should change, correct, or modify in it before making it public.

The extreme caution involved in this circuitous method of publishing

shows that the lessons learned inwere still very much on his mind.

With advance theological support, he could protect his work from sub-

sequent criticism. Mersenne sent him comments onDecember, and

Descartes thanked him on Christmas Day for his advice concerning the

‘Essay on Metaphysics’ (ii.).

Between Decemberand August(when the first edition of the

Meditationswas printed), Descartes worked consistently on two related

features of the new project. One was to collect objections from theolo-

gians and to reply to them in writing, so that the objections and replies

could appear together in the first edition. The other was to approach the

theology faculty of the Sorbonne for an official endorsement that would

provide a guarantee of its orthodoxy. Both strategies were motivated by

the same concerns about theological disputes, especially those originating

with Jesuits, that had made him avoid this subject for so long. These legit-

imate concerns further reinforce the question why he decided to engage

with metaphysical questions at all.

One possible explanation is that Descartes had been thinking about a

Latin edition of theEssayssince. This was eventually published –

without theGeometry–inasSpecimens of Philosophy, or a Dissertation

on the Method for Guiding Reason properly and for Investigating Truth in

the Sciences.However, there were frequent changes of plan before the final

decision to publish theSpecimens of Philosophy.Hehad considered, at

onestage, including selected objections and replies in the Latin edition

butlater abandoned that idea. At about the same time as that decision

was made, draft versions of the Latin text began to circulate. These drafts

included theMeteors, which would have been an ideal textbook in Latin for

Jesuit schools, and they probably included a Latin version of theDiscourse