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Introduction: Radical Cartesianism in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2009

Tad M. Schmaltz
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
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Summary

Il ne me reste qu'à témoigner à Robert Desgabets la reconnaissance que j'ay au nom de tous les Cartésians des avis qu'il leur donne si souvent de se garder des préjugez. Il ne me reste, dis-je, qu'à lui témoigner ma reconnaissance par l'avis, que je crois lui devoir en cette occasion, de se défendre avec application, de la pente qu'il a un peu trop naturelle à s'imaginer que ce qui est le plus outré dans les sciences est le plus vrai.

It remains for me only to show Robert Desgabets the recognition that I have in the name of all the Cartesians of the advice that he gives to them so often to guard against prejudices. It remains for me, I say, only to show by the warning that I believe I owe him on this occasion to defend himself carefully against the inclination that is a little too natural for him to imagine that what is the most extreme in the sciences is the most true.

– Cardinal de Retz, “Dissertations sur le cartésianisme” (R 219)

This passage, which dates from 1677, serves to introduce us to the early modern, French Cartesian Robert Desgabets, a figure almost entirely unknown in the English-speaking world.

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Chapter
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Radical Cartesianism
The French Reception of Descartes
, pp. 1 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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