Descartes: A Biography

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

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

response from Descartes, who addressed his critic as ‘O Flesh’ (vii.,

).The sharpness of this exchange is reflected in Descartes’ instruc-

tions to Mersenne. He told him not to show the replies to Gassendi before

publication lest he change his mind, and to print the author’s name so that

he could not take refuge in the kind of anonymity offered to others.The

final set of objections was collected from various theologians by Mersenne,

as the second set had been earlier, and they were sent to Descartes during

the summer of.

The Sorbonne Approval

Throughout this whole process of inviting objections and drafting replies,

Descartes referred frequently to his hopes of getting some kind of official

approval from the Sorbonne.He told Mersenne (March) that he

had sent him the text ‘to get the judgment of the Sorbonne people about it,

[and] not to delay me in disputes with all the little minds who would like to

get involved in sending me objections’ (iii.). He reminded Mersenne

of the same objective at the end of March, and thanked him in July for

the suggestion that he omit some paragraphs about transubstantiation

‘if that can help to get an approval’ (iii.). Since they were already

printing the book at that stage, he had to acknowledge that he might not

get the Sorbonne’s endorsement in time, and he claimed that it would not

bother him much if it failed to arrive. OnAugust, the Sorbonne

appointed four of its members to read and report on theMeditations.

There is no evidence of what the subcommittee recommended. Meantime,

the printers had completed their task on August, and theMeditations

appeared without any official response from the Sorbonne. Evidently, both

the author and the printer had anticipated a different decision, because

they included on the title page the phrase: ‘With a Privilege, and the

approbation of Doctors’. The second edition, published in Amsterdam,

omitted this phrase. A Dutch edition did not need a French privilege, and

it was clear by that time that the Sorbonne had remained silent in response

to Descartes’ request.

Descartes’ reaction to this failure was characteristic of his duplicity in

other matters. He claimed both that he did not need the approval of others,

and that he had never even requested it. He had anticipated a negative

decision onJuly,when he thanked Mersenne for all his assistance

in arranging for the book’s publication, and accepted the modifications of