Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

theDiscourseandEssaysof.Asmentioned earlier, he planned to meet

Descartes in person in,inthe company of Reneri, but this visit had to

be abandoned because Reneri fell ill. After Reneri’s death in March,

Regius began to communicate regularly with Descartes, without relying

onan intermediary, and to discuss with him various questions from natural

philosophy on which he was working independently. By July, there

were early signs of conflict at Utrecht University between supporters and

critics of traditional philosophy, at a thesis defence by Florentius Schuyl

(–).Following his graduation in arts at Utrecht, Schuyl was

later to study at Leiden and, in,toedit the first edition (in Latin)

of Descartes’Treatise on Man.However, as a young student at Utrecht,

he defended a thesis about magnetic powers that provoked the standard

Cartesian criticism, namely, that it relied on occult powers that merely

redescribed what needed to be explained.These were the first signs

that Cartesian philosophy had infiltrated Utrecht, and they pointed to

an imminent confrontation between traditional philosophy and its Carte-

sian critics.

Despite his promotion to full professor in March,Regius was

still being paid only about half the salary of comparable professors at

Utrecht. He therefore asked permission to give extra lectures on physics,

and, with the support of Voetius and without any objections from the

professor of philosophy, he assumed these extra duties in May.

This allowed Regius to lecture on topics on which, for some time, he

had been composing a textbook of physics that eventually appeared, in

,asPhysical Foundations. These lectures were complemented by a

series of disputations that Regius arranged for his students. Even the first

of these, on blood circulation (June), was so controversial that

he was advised in advance to focus on some more traditional topic in

medicine.Regius was not renownded for subtlety or an ability to avoid

controversy. He proceeded more or less as he had planned, and received

suggestions from Descartes before the disputation was held.The rela-

tions between Regius and Descartes at this stage were mutually supportive

and sympathetic. For example, even when Regius raised critical objections

to the text of theMeditations, Descartes rejected them with uncharacter-

istic expressions of gratitude and a solicitous understanding of why they

disagreed.

The disputation in support of the Cartesian theory of blood circulation

provoked hostile comments, both in Utrecht and elsewhere in Europe.