Descartes’s Method afterRules

Abstract

AbstractChapter 11 examines Descartes’s method after Rules for the Direction of the Mind. Sections 11.2–11.3 show how problems internal to Rules led Descartes to abandon the treatise and turn to metaphysics and systematic natural philosophy in 1629–1630. Section 11.4 examines whether Descartes’s method continues to play a role in his philosophy in and after 1629–1630. Sections 11.5–11.6 reconstruct the development of the theory of simple natures (mostly in Principles and related texts and correspondence) as well as the relation between Descartes’s theory of simple natures and his ontology of substance, attribute, and mode.