Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

Evidently it remained possible, until he saw the published book, that

Regius might have introduced amendments as a result of his earlier dis-

cussions with Descartes. However, even prior to seeing the book in print,

Descartes’ report to Mersenne was less than honest. He should have told

him that Regius had visited him, that he had given him an advance copy

of the book, and that one of his main reasons for objecting to its contents

was that it was likely to misrepresent Descartes’ own views.

Descartes returns to the same theme a month later in another letter to

Mersenne, when he explains at greater length his objections to the book

by Regius. On this occasion, his own interest is much more prominent.

I recently saw a book that will make me more cautious in future about communicating

mythoughts than I have been up to now. It is a book by a professor at Utrecht, Regius,

entitledPhysical Foundations. While repeating most of the things that I put in my

Principles,myDioptrics, and myMeteors,hepiles into it everything that he was ever

able to get from me in private and even everything that he was able to learn through

indirect means that I did not want him to know about. Besides, he recounts the whole

lot in such a confused manner and provides so few reasons that his book can serve

only to make these views appear ridiculous and to leave me open to criticism in two

ways. Those who know that he has hitherto professed such friendship with me, and

that he has followed blindly all my views, will wish to hold me responsible for all his

mistakes. Secondly, in respect of the things that I have not yet published, if I ever

wish to publish them people will notice that they resemble what he has written and

will say that I borrowed them from him. But the worst of all is that, although he has

followed what he believed were my views in physics...he has done the exact opposite

in metaphysics, and in four or five places where he writes about metaphysics he takes

completely contrary positions to what I wrote in theMeditations.

The real source of Descartes’ concerns is clear in this more honest letter.

He was worried that he would suffer collateral damage if readers attributed

the same views to him as they did to Regius. He was also anxious to protect

the novelty of his own theories and not to allow Regius to publish them

prematurely; and he was especially concerned by the unorthodoxy of the

metaphysical views about the human soul that Regius had published in

his new book. He wanted to make it clear that Regius was no longer his

friend, and he suggested to Mersenne that, if he had not already bought

a copy, he could save himself the cost of the book, which would otherwise

be wasted.

The damage limitation exercise continued for a number of months.

Descartes wrote to the Jesuit, Father Charlet, in December that he would

have preferred it if ‘one of his friends’ had expressed his criticism of school