On Descartes’ Passive Thought The Myth of Cartesian Dualism

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Synopsis

On Descartes’ Passive Thought is the culmination of a life-long reflection on the philosophy of Descartes by one of the most important living French philosophers. In it, Jean-Luc Marion examines anew some of the questions left unresolved in his previous books about Descartes, with a particular focus on Descartes’s theory of morals and the passions.

Descartes has long been associated with mind-body dualism, but Marion argues here that this is a historical misattribution, popularized by Malebranche and popular ever since both within the academy and with the general public. Actually, Marion shows, Descartes held a holistic conception of body and mind. He called it the meum corpus, a passive mode of thinking, which implies far more than just pure mind—rather, it signifies a mind directly connected to the body: the human being that I am. Understood in this new light, the Descartes Marion uncovers through close readings of works such as Passions of the Soul resists prominent criticisms leveled at him by twentieth-century figures like Husserl and Heidegger, and even anticipates the non-dualistic, phenomenological concepts of human being discussed today. This is a momentous book that no serious historian of philosophy will be able to ignore.

Book details

Author:
Jean-Luc Marion
ISBN:
9780226192611
Related ISBNs:
9780226192581
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Pages:
N/A
Reading age:
Not specified
Includes images:
No
Date of addition:
2020-10-31
Usage restrictions:
Copyright
Copyright date:
2018
Copyright by:
N/A 
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
Health, Mind and Body, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy