ABSTRACT
Cartesianism refers to the scientific and, especially, the philosophical doctrines originating with René Descartes (1596-1650). Scientifically, the most prominent doctrine was mechanism, according to which all change is change of motion, and motion changes only upon contact. The distinctively Cartesian version of this doctrine gave it a mathematical cast. Material nature was fundamentally mathematical, not only in the sense that its laws were mathematical, but also that its essence was the extension thought to be the object of geometry. Indeed, Descartes boasted that his “physics is nothing but geometry” and that with extension and motion alone he could re-create the universe. The most prominent philosophical doctrines of Cartesianism are radical dualism, according to which mind and body are distinct substances, and foundationalism, according to which human knowledge must have an unshakable basis that is immune to skeptical doubt. Unlike Descartes’s scientific views, which have been largely either modified beyond recognition or rejected outright, his philosophical views continue to be debated.
