Early modern Cartesianisms: Dutch and French constructions

There is a general sense that the philosophy of Descartes was a dominant force in early modern thought. Since the work in the nineteenth century of French historians of Cartesian philosophy, however, there has been no fully contextualized comparative examination of the various receptions of Descartes in different portions of early modern Europe. This study addresses the need for a more current understanding of these receptions by considering the different constructions of Descartes's thought that emerged in the Calvinist United Provinces (Netherlands) and Catholic France, the two main centers for early modern Cartesianism, during the period dating from the last decades of his life to the century or so following his death in 1650. It turns out that we must speak not of a single early modern Cartesianism rigidly defined in terms of Descartes's own authorial intentions, but rather of a loose collection of early modern Cartesianisms that involve a range of different positions on various sets of issues. Though more or less rooted in Descartes's somewhat open-ended views, these Cartesianisms evolved in different ways over time in response to different intellectual and social pressures.

1. Cartesianisms in Crisis -- 1.1. Two Problems for Descartes -- 1.2. The Problem of the Eucharist -- 1.3. The Problem of Human Freedom -- 2. Ancient and Modern Descartes(es) -- 2.1. Descartes on the Ancients -- 2.2. Ancient Descartes -- 2.3. Modern Descartes -- 3. Augustinian Cartesianisms -- 3.1. Descartes and Augustine -- 3.2. Augustine in Later Cartesianism -- 3.3. Augustine and Eternal Truths -- 3.4. The Great Debate: Arnauld versus Malebranche -- 4. Cartesian Occasionalisms -- 4.1. Descartes and Occasionalism -- 4.2. Mind-Body Occasionalisms: Clauberg and Arnauld -- 4.3.1666 Occasionalisms: La Forge and Cordemoy -- 4.4.Complete Occasionalisms:Geulincx and Malebranche -- 5. Cartesianisms in Dutch Medicine -- 5.1. Mechanism and Empiricism in Descartes's Medicine -- 5.2. Regius, Descartes, and Cartesianism -- 5.3. Mechanism and Empiricism in Dutch Medicine -- 6. Cartesianisms in French Physics -- 6.1. Mechanism and Empiricism in Descartes's Physics -- 6.2. Qualitative French Cartesian Physics -- 6.3. Quantitative French Cartesian Physics -- Afterword.