Descartes Dictionary

John Morris

• Editorial: Philosophical Library/Open Road
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781504076289
• Categoría: Filosofia
• Categoría: Storia e teoria della filosofia

An accessible guide to understanding many of the complex technical and special terms implemented by the seventeenth-century philosopher.

French philosopher René Descartes authored many works in his lifetime like Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy. But while his "I think, therefore I am" may be easy to grasp, much of the terminology he uses can be challenging. Descartes would frequently introduce terms in his writings without explanation, and if there were such a definition, it is in one of his letters or an obscure, unpublished work. In Descartes Dictionary, author John M. Morris collects as many as possible of the technical and special phrases Descartes employed in his writings along with their definitions in Descartes's own words. This volume is a great companion book for anyone studying the philosopher's works and will certainly enrich their understanding.

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SAD HUMOR

The sad humor is composed of slowness and disquiet, and can be augmented by malignity and timidity.

Treatise on Man. XI, 167.

SADNESS

Sadness is a disagreeable languor, which consists in the annoyance that the soul receives from evil, or from some fault, which the impressions of the brain represent to it as pertaining to it. And there is also an intellectual sadness, which is not a passion, but which is almost always accompanied by it.

Passions, II, 92. XI, 397.

In sadness, the pulse is feeble and weak, and something like cords are felt about the heart, which press against it, and ice which freezes it, and communicates its coldness to the rest of the body; and nevertheless one often retains a good appetite, and senses that the stomach still does its job, provided that there is no hate mixed with the sadness.

Passions, II, 100. XI, 403.

Often, after having laughed a great deal, one naturally feels inclined to sadness, because the more fluid part of the blood from the spleen has been exhausted, and the other, thicker blood follows it to the heart.

Passions, II, 126. XI, 421.

See joy.

SALT

Sometimes it happens that the salt which comes from the sea passes through the pores of the earth which are so narrow, or so arranged that they change something in the shape of the particles of salt, by means of which it loses the form of common salt, and takes on that of saltpeter, sal ammoniac, or some other kind of salt.

Principles, IV, 69. IX2, 238.

SATISFACTION

We can also consider the cause of good or evil when it is as much present as past. And the good which has been done by ourselves gives us an internal satisfaction, which is the sweetest of all the passions; on the other hand, evil excites repentance, which is the bitterest.

Passions, II, 63.

The satisfaction, which those who constantly follow the path of virtue always have, is a habit in their soul, which is called tranquility and ease of conscience. But that which is newly acquired, when one has just done some action which he thinks is good, is a passion, namely a species of joy, which I believe to be the sweetest of all, because its cause depends only upon ourselves.

Passions, III, 190. XI, 471.

SCEPTICS

I did not imitate the sceptics, who doubt only for the sake of doubting, and always pretend to be irresolute.

Discourse, III. VI, 29.

SCHOLASTICISM

In case anyone is put out by this new use of the term intuition and of other terms which in the following pages I am similarly compelled to dissever from their current meaning, I here make the general announcement that I pay no attention to the way in which particular terms have of late been employed in the schools, because it would have been difficult to employ the same terminology while my theory was wholly different.

Rules, III. X, 369.

The monks have given birth to all the sects and to all the heresies, by their theology, that is, by their scholasticism, which must be destroyed before anything else.

Burman. V, 176.

SCHOOLS

We very often see that people who have never troubled themselves with study make clearer and more solid judgments than those who have passed their time in the schools.

Rules, IV. X, 371.

SCIENCE

I do not want to give the public another Lullian Ars Brevis, but a science with new foundations, which permits a general resolution of all questions which can be proposed, for any type of quantity, continuous or discontinuous, but each according to its own nature.

To Beeckman, Mar. 26, 1619. X, 156-57.

Science is like a wife; if, modestly, she remains close to her husband, she is honored; if she gives herself to everyone, she cheapens herself.

Cogitationes Privatae. X, 214.

The sciences are now masked; if the masks were removed, they would appear in all their beauty.

Cogitationes Privatae. X, 215.

Determinate limits are prescribed for all minds: they cannot go beyond them. If certain persons, by default of mind, cannot use principles of invention, they will be able at least to know the true price of the sciences; and that will be enough to provide them with true judgments about the value of things.

Cogitationes Privatae. X, 215.

Since the sciences taken all together are identical with human wisdom, which always remains one and the same, however applied to different subjects, and suffers no more differentiation proceeding from them than the light of the sun experiences from the variety of the things which it illuminates, there is no need for minds to be confined at all within limits.

Rules, I. X, 360.

All science is certain and evident knowledge.

Rules, II. X, 362.

One ought to derive the sciences — even the most profoundly hidden ones — not from imposing and obscure principles, but only from principles which are easy and quite close at hand.

Rules, IX. X, 402.

All human science consists of one thing: namely, the distinct vision of the way in which simple natures combine together in the composition of other things.

Rules, XII. X, 427.

The knowledge of the order [of the positions of the st...