MODIFIED/MODIFIED JAN 21 2002

Programme for Receptions of Descartes

March 14-17, 2002

THURSDAY, MARCH 14
Condemnation and Critique
Chair: M. Rozemond

2-3:05 J.-R. Armogathe (Paris) The First Condemnation of Descartes's Œuvres

3:20-4:25 T. Lennon (Western Ontario) Huet and Regis on the Reality of Cartesian Doubt

Most of the topics that have drawn the attention of Descartes's readers over the past half-century did not attract nearly the same attention in seventeenth-century works. An exception is Pierre-Daniel Huet's Censura philosophiae cartesianae (1689), where latter-day chestnuts such as the cogito, the circularity of the Meditations, the nature of clarity and distinctness, the mind-body problem, and so on, are treated in unprecedented detail. Moreover, Descartes's views on these topics are treated with unsurpassed passion, almost all of it unreservedly negative. The paper will say a bit about Huet, this work of his, and why it has been neglected. Mainly, however, the paper will explore Huet's criticisms of Descartes's use of doubt and the debate that ensued on this topic between Regis, who produced a Réponse on behalf of Cartesianism (1691), and Huet, who replied in a greatly expanded edition of the Censura (1694) and in still unpublished manuscript material. The issue of doubt begins the Censura, for Huet took it to be the foundation of Descartes's philosophy, and it reveals a great deal about the motivation, tone, style and nature of Huet's critique as a whole.

4:40-5:45 T. Schmaltz (Duke) Cartesianism in Context: The Paris Formulary
and Regis's Usage

I offer an account of the French reception of Descartes that highlights a formulary that was imposed on the Paris philosophy faculty in 1691. The Paris Formulary insinuated that Cartesianism not only requires that reason has priority over faith, but also leads to heretical Jansenist views concerning free will. In his 1704 Usage de la raison, the French Cartesian Pierre-Sylvain Regis in effect countered these charges by insisting on the absolute distinction between faith and reason and by articulating a non-Jansenist account of free will. I argue that though the responses are problematic in certain respects, the problems are instructive since they reveal the inadequacy of the suggestion in the Paris Formulary of an essential connection between Cartesian philosophy and Jansenist theology.

6 Pig Pickin' (Franklin Center)

FRIDAY, MARCH 15
Spinozistic Connections
Chair: R. Watson

9-10:05 D. Garber (Chicago) Clauberg on Continuous Re-Creation

10:20-11:25 S. Nadler (Wisconsin-Mad.) Descartes's Soul, Spinoza's Mind

I examine the differences between Descartes's conception of the human soul and Spinoza's view of the mind. I will focus especially on the issue of the immortality of the soul for which Descartes argues and the eternity of the mind that appears in Spinoza's Ethics.

12-2 Lunch Buffet (Franklin Center)

Influence on Natural Philosophy
Chair: A. Lolordo

2-3:05 P. Lodge (Tulane) The Cartesian Account of the Material World:
Huet's Censura and De Volder's Reply

Burcher de Volder is perhaps best known to historians of philosophy through his correspondence with Leibniz between 1698 and 1706. However, he came to Leibniz's attention primarily as the author of "Exercitationes Academicae quibus Ren Cartesii Philosophiae defenditur adversus Petri Danielis Huettii Episcopi Sucessionis Censuram Philosophiae Cartesianae," a Cartesian response to the critique of Descartes in Huet's Censura.
The paper includes (1) A critical discussion of little studied parts of Huet's Censura which deal with the Cartesian philosophy of nature and (2) an account of the Cartesianism that emerges in De Volder's response to Huet.
Aside from providing a fascinating window on Cartesianism in the last decade of the 17th Century, the parts of the Exercitationes that I discuss provide further evidence relating to the Klever's claim that De Volder was a "Crypto-Spinozist". In addition, they present important background information for those who are interested in De Volder's correspondence with Leibniz, which is also concerned primarily with the nature of the material world.

3:20-4:25 D. Jesseph (North Carolina State) Descartes and British Philosophy

A consideration of Joseph Glanvill's Scepsis Scientifica and its connections to Henry More and the early Royal Society. The thesis here is that the unresolved tensions in the Cartesian account of body, mind, causation, and explanation led on the one hand to Glanvill's mitigated skepticism in the service of empirical science, and the other to More's theory of plastic natures and the essential activity of body. These are brought together in the treatment of the mechanical philosophy in the Royal Society, where Cartesian themes involving mind, mechanism, and theology get modified and reinterpreted in a variety of ways.

4:40-5:45 M. Atherton (Wisconsin-Milw.) Cartesianism in England: The Case of Vision

Sorting out Descartes's impact on English language philosophy has been hampered by the way in which early modern thinkers have been traditionally labelled Continental Rationalists and British
Empiricists. While these labels have deservedly been criticised, there is a hint of truth contained in the fact that English language philosophy in the century after Descartes's death came to be dominated by many of the projects and concerns initiated by John Locke. So it seems as though one will look in vain for Cartesianism among the English, or, at the very least, be reduced to pulling "rationalist" elements out from canonically empiricist ideas. It is my thought, however, that we will go much further in tracing Descartes's influence if we abandon these labels altogether. I find that the theory of vision provides an excellent example for this approach. Descartes's work on vision gave the theory of vision new direction. Descartes formulated the problems of vision psycho-physically, claiming that "it is the mind, not the eye, that sees." In so doing, Descartes provided the reference framework for much subsequent work on vision. In English speaking
countries in the century after Descartes's death, there was considerable work on vision, most notably that of George Berkeley, which can be understood as working out problems within Descartes's original approach. In my paper for this conference, I plan to work out and
discuss the nature of these Cartesian connections in the theory of vision.

7:30 Dinner at Café Momo

SATURDAY, MARCH 16
French Variations
Chair: A. Simmons

9-10:05 P. Easton (Claremont) Cartesianism and the Spirit of Reform (1650-
1678): Desgabets's Indefectibility Thesis-A Step too Far?

The focus of my examination will be Desgabets's indefectibility thesis and its reception by early defenders of the Cartesian philosophy who reacted to this doctrine. Such opponents and proponents include Corbinelli, Retz, and Regis. One commentator has remarked that this thesis fills an important lacuna in the history of philosophy since it serves the transition between
the Method and the Theologico-Politicus of Spinoza and helps to explain Leibniz's comment that Spinozism is nothing but an immoderate Cartesianism. My view is that Desgabets does not take the Cartesian doctrine of matter a step too far but rather quite reasonably sees it as a logical in step of the Cartesian metaphysics.

10:20-11:25 R. Ariew (Virginia Tech) Oratorians and Cartesianism in France: 1670-1683

A number of Oratorians taught Cartesian philosophy during the second half of the seventeenth century, despite warnings and reprimands by their superiors, official edicts by the order, and actual punishment by the university and the state. However, some Oratorians-Jean Baptiste de la Grange in Les principes de la philosophie contre les nouveaux philosophes, for example-were opponents of Cartesian philosophy. I examine this debate within the Oratory, from de la Grange's treatise to the censured writings of the Cartesian Oratorians at Angers (Fromentier, Lamy, Villecrose, and Pélaut). I also look at Entretiens sur les sciences, the subsequent published work of Bernard Lamy. The object of this examination is to see how Cartesian philosophy changes when it becomes Oratorian philosophy and whether this received Cartesian philosophy can answer its Oratorian critics.

12-2 Boxed Lunch in Duke Gardens (weather permitting)

Cartesianism Beyond France
Chair: Dennis Des Chene

2-3:05 T. Verbeek (Utrecht) Wittich and Descartes on the Concept of God

3:20-4:25 G. Belgioioso (Lecce) Les Images de Descartes en Italie

4:40-5:45 S. Hutton (Middlesex) Cartesianism and Female Philosophy in the
Seventeenth Century

My paper will discuss the importance of Cartesianism as a facilitator of women's philosophy in the early modern period. By placing Cartesianism in historical context, I shall argue that Cartesianism afforded an opening for women who wished to participate in philosophical debate, and that the
critiques of Cartesianism by women philosophers must be understood in the light of the fortuna of Descares' philosophy in the later seventeenth century. Among the women thinkers I shall discuss will be Princess Elizabeth, Anne Conway and Mary Astell.

6 Reception (Franklin Center)

7:30 French Buffet (Faculty Commons at Duke)

SUNDAY, MARCH 17
Informal Ending
10-Noon Discussion (with light brunch)

Those who wish to register for the conference may do so on-line on the Receptions conference webpage http://www.duke.edu/philosophy/descartes/index.html The registration fee is $20. Registrants and their guests are welcome to sign up for catered events on the webpage by Thursday, March 7, 2002. For further information, please contact the conference organizer, Tad Schmaltz, at tad.schmaltz@duke.edu.

QUESTIONS?

Tad Schmaltz Department of Philosophy 201 West Duke Bldg. Duke University Durham, North Carolina 27708 USA Office phone: 919/660-3059 Dept. fax: 919/660-3060 E-mail: tad.schmaltz@duke.edu

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