Descartes: A Biography

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

 Descartes: A Biography

Mesland, and having recognized that the former was then the provincial

superior of the Jesuits in France, Descartes expressed his confidence that

none of the Jesuits, ‘especially those in France’, would abuse their position

bymisrepresenting him to others.Once again, Descartes was happy with

the apparent implications of these obsequious letters in which he implored

the Jesuits for their support and favour. He reported in December to

Princess Elizabeth – hardly someone who shared his esteem for the Jesuits –

that he had ‘even received compliments from the Jesuit Fathers, whom

Ihavealwaysbelieved would be most interested in the publication of a

new philosophy and who would pardon me least if they thought they

had reason to find something wrong with it’.Descartes was evidently

still hoping that hisPrincipleswould be adopted as a more satisfactory

philosophy of nature by the Jesuits, and that they would find a way to

reconcile it with their scholastic tradition. For this reason, if for no other,

it was most important that the new French edition dissociate itself from

the unorthodoxy of Regius. This is exactly what Descartes did in a letter

addressed to the translator of the French version, Claude Picot, which

could function as a Preface to thePrinciples.

In this Preface, Descartes was conscious of the diplomacy required

to win the support of his intended readership. Thus, while he claimed

that the schools had blindly followed Aristotle and, as a result, had failed

to discover true principles, he was equally keen to point out his respect

forthe ancients. ‘Although I respect all those thinkers and do not wish

to make enemies by finding fault with them, I can provide a proof of

what I say which I think none of them would reject....nonetheless, I do

not wish to diminish the reputation that each of them can claim’ (ix-.

–). With these concessions to tradition in place, Descartes set out his

famous metaphor about philosophy being like a tree. ‘Thus the whole of

philosophy is like a tree, the roots of which are metaphysics, its trunk is

physics, and the branches that emerge from this trunk are all the other

sciences, namely, medicine, mechanics, and morality’ (ix-.). Descartes

had to admit that, if he were to provide a complete philosophy, he would

have to include sections on ‘plants, animals and especially man’ (ix-.).

However, reflecting the same reservations that he had expressed to a num-

ber of correspondents, he thought he was not so old or so frail that it

would be impossible to complete the project. However, to do so would

have required ‘all the experiences that I would need to support and justify

mytheories’ (ix-.). These in turn would involve great expense, and