Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

transmitted light.Descartes seems never to have acknowledged any merit

in Hobbes’s point of view. He regretted that his first reply was not suffi-

cient to terminate the correspondence and, having reviewed the material

again, he concluded: ‘As a final word, I have not found the slightest argu-

ment in this whole paper which differs from mine and which appears to

be true and valid’ (iii.–,). ByMarch, Descartes was asking

Mersenne to discontinue the discussion with ‘the Englishman’: ‘I think

that it would be best if I had nothing to do with him and, with that in

mind, that I refrain from replying to him’ (iii.).

Descartes received a fourth set of objections in March, written as

usual at Mersenne’s request, from Antoine Arnauld (–). Arnauld

was subsequently to figure prominently in support of the Jansenist cause

against the Jesuits, but at this point in his life he was a relatively young

theologian who was about to receive a doctorate in theology from the

Sorbonne.Despite his youth, Arnauld impressed Descartes with the

detailed suggestions he made; ‘I think these objections are the best of

all...because he has penetrated more than anyone else into the meaning

of what I wrote’ (iii.). As a result of his objections, Descartes agreed

to make a number of changes to the original text, and he sent those to

Mersenne.In particular, he adopted Arnauld’s advice about the sen-

sitivity of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and he agreed to

check the official teaching of the church in its general councils. However,

he still maintained that the church’s teaching about the Eucharist could be

explained best by using Cartesian principles, and that it was poorly served

bythose who ‘mixed together Aristotle and the Bible and wished to abuse

the authority of the Church to exercise their passions’ (iii.). Despite

this conviction, Descartes omitted a few paragraphs from the conclusion

of his Replies to Arnauld, on Mersenne’s advice, athough he restored

them again in the second edition after he failed to obtain the Sorbonne’s

approval.

Pierre Gassendi (–) was a Catholic priest from Aix-en-

Provence, and he visited Paris in Januaryto arrange for publication of

hisLife of Peiresc.Heseems to have been given a copy of theMeditationsin

March, and he eventually found time to write his extremely lengthy com-

ments before sending them to Descartes aboutMay.Not only

did Gassendi write the longest objections, he went further than anyone

else in antagonizing the author of theMeditationsbymockingly address-

ing him as ‘O Mind’. Not surprisingly, this triggered an equally sarcastic