Descartes: A Biography

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

 Notes to Pages–

.This is repeated, slightly more clearly, in Part II, par.:‘As regards the function

of the emotions, it is noticeable that, in accordance with nature’s institution, they

are all related to the body and are provided to the soul only insofar as it is united

with the body. Hence their natural function is to stimulate the soul to assent and

contribute to actions which can be used to preserve the body or to make it in some

sense more perfect’ (xi.).

.In theMeditations, Descartes argued that mistaken perceptions – such as feeling

pain in an amputated limb – occur because nature has designed our system of

perceptions so that the information it provides is more likely to be beneficial to

each organism, in most circumstances, than any alternative system. See the Sixth

Meditation (vii.–).

.The dualism of mind and body was accepted as an underlying assumption at the

beginning of thePassions,inPart I, paragraphsand. ‘There is no better way to

acquire knowledge of our passions than by examining the difference between the

soul and the body....Everything in us, which is such that we cannot in any way

conceive of it as capable of belonging to the body, should be attributed to our soul’

(xi.,).

.Carcavi to Descartes,September(v.).

Chapter

.Descartes to Brasset,April(v.).

.Descartes to [Pollot?], possibly(v.).

.Descartes endorses, in theDiscourse, the Stoic philosophers who believed that

‘there was nothing completely in their power apart from their own thoughts’

(vi.).

.Passions of the Soul,Part III, par.(xi.–).

.Descartes to Brasset,April(v.).

.Descartes to Clerselier,April(v.).

.Descartes to Picot,April(v.), and Baillet (), ii..

.Descartes to Picot,andMay(v.–). Chanut had left Stockholm

onMay, and he spent two days in The Hague (andMay) before

continuing his journey to Paris.

.Descartes to Elizabeth,June(v.–).

.Descartes to Freinsheim, June(v.).

.Carcavi to Descartes,July(v.). Carcavi added that he was awaiting

publication of thePassions, and of the Latin translation of theGeometrythat had

been prepared by Van Schooten.

.Carcavi to Descartes,July(v.).

.Descartes to Carcavi,August(v.).

.Descartes had written to Mersenne the previous year with concerns about Van

Schooten’s ability to translate theGeometryaccurately. However, on that occasion

he conceded that Van Schooten’s incompetence would coincide with his own desire

not to make the book clear enough to provide ammunition to critics. ‘That is why