ABSTRACT

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part offers two different interpretations of that theory—and two different accounts of its implications for the rest of Rene Descartes' system. It describes two different 'primitive notions' of causation: one for body-body causation and one for mind-body causation. In the Meditations, Descartes tries to prove that the human mind or soul is an immaterial substance distinct from the human body. Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia wrote to Descartes with an objection that many later readers are sympathetic to. In Descartes' physics, which is founded on the claim that the essence of body is extension, causation requires contact. Descartes, like many early modern philosophers, believes that the world depends causally on God at each moment, not just at the instant of creation.