DESCARTES'S ARGUMENTS THAT THE BODY can be considered a selfpropelled machine rely on a misuse of the Aristotelian concept of "self-motion." They depend upon the premise that life is self-motion, the Aristotelian definition which Descartes learned from Latin handbooks at La F16che. By retaining this premise, Descartes believed he was defeating the Aristotelians on their own turf when he argued ...

Affiliations: Dept of Respiratory Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. Erasmus Medical Center, Dept of Epidemiology, CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. PRC Laboratory, University François Rabelais/Centre INRA of Tours, Nouzilly, France. Cordeliers Faculty of Medicine, University Paris-Descartes, Paris, France. Cordeliers Research Centre, INSERM-Paris-Descartes-University, Paris, Fra...

In the 1640’s Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes engaged in a philosophically rich correspondence. The most well-known aspect correspondence begins with question asks about his account interaction between soul body. This objection, often called ‘problem interaction’, has received much attention contemporary scholarship this frequently focuses on exchange Descartes. Following lead himself, ...

Paul Jacques Zufferey1,2; Charles Marc Samama3; Nadia Rosencher4 1Thrombosis Research Group (EA 3065), University Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France; 2Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital, Saint-Etienne, France; 3AP-HP, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Hôtel Dieu Hospital, Paris Descartes University Paris, France; 4AP-HP, Cochin Department of An...

T hroughout history there has always been a struggle in the human mind between the discrete and the continuous. This difference in viewpoint climaxed in the 17th century because of a fundamental conflict in the cosmologies of Descartes and Newton. The 17th century was arguably the century of scientific genius: Kepler, Napier, Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Fermat, Pascal, Huygens, Hooke, Boyle, Lee...