Descartes: A Biography

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

Notes to Pages– 

‘I fear only that the doctors’ ignorance will cause them to make mistakes that will

injure him. They were right to bleed him at the beginning...butbecause they are

great supporters of blood-letting at Paris, I am afraid that when they notice that

the blood-letting helped him they may continue with the same therapy and that

will greatly weaken the brain without improving his bodily health.’ Descartes to

Mersenne,November(iv.).

.Descartes to Elizabeth [March](iv.).

.Chanut to Descartes,May(x.).

.Descartes to Chanut,June(v.–).

.Iamgrateful to Theo Verbeek for information about this appointment. The title of

‘Professor Extraordinary’ implied that the holder was less than a full or ‘ordinary’

professor and that he was paid correspondingly less. Heereboord’s appointment

as assistant regent or assistant dean of theStatencollegeprovided a supplementary

salary.

.Descartes to Pollot,January:‘Ihavejust read the theses of a professor

of philosophy at Leiden, in which he declares his support for me and cites me

with much more praise that Mr. Regius ever did. He did this without having

consulted me, when I knew nothing about it, because the theses were printed

three weeks ago and I received them only yesterday. However, they will greatly

anger my enemies....Iamtold that there is also someone at Groningen who wishes

to support me. These events do not affect me very much. For my adversary [i.e.,

Voetius], however, who I think does not sleep as well as I do, they are revolutionary’

(iv.).

.Descartes to Pollot,January: ‘some time ago this professor arranged

other disputations, concerning substantial forms, in which he seems to support

Aristotle....’(iv.)

.Amyraut ().

.This disputation was held onMarch. See Heereboord (),, and

Verbeek (),–.

.Quoted by Verbeek (),.

.Ibid.

.Quoted by Verbeek (),–, and by Descartes in his letter to the Leiden

University curators,May(v.).

.Descartes to Heereboord,April(iv.). Descartes mentions a previous

letter (now lost) that he had sent to Heereboord, in which he inquired about

theological disputes at Leiden. On this occasion, he concentrates on a disputation

that had been scheduled forMarch and had, unknown to him, been deferred

untilApril, in which Descartes was mentioned as the source of the exaggerated

idea of the human will. He asked Heereboord to inquire of others who may have

attended the disputation to find out what was said, if he had not been present

himself.

.Descartes had contrasted the apparently unlimited scope of the will with that of the

understanding in the context of explaining, in the Fourth Meditation, how human

beings fall into error. Even when we lack clear and distinct ideas, we may still

exercise our will by making a judgment. ‘I experience the will alone, or freedom