L'anthropologie cartésienne (review)

BOOK REVIEWS ~99 respective critiques of contemporary medicine, physiology and anatomy; Vivian Nutton on the curious and complicated story of Brasavala's prefaces Is/el to his printed commentary (1541) on Hippocrates' Aphorisms;J. W. Binns on Elizabeth I's visits to Cambridge and Oxford; Ian Maclean on the philosophical book trade in the European market 057o-163o), with special reference to the case of Ramus and his principal publisher Andr6 Wechel. Finally, Luce Giard writes an inspiring intellectual biography of Charles Schmitt as historian--"reconstructor of a history"--of Renaissance learning, and rounding off the volume is an invaluable bibliography of Charles's publications (books, articles, and reviews), compiled by Constance Blackwell. Other than the Preface, the collection is shy of a contribution from each of the editors. Admittedly, editing is a debilitating full-timejob, especially if it is to succeed, as is assuredly the case here. Yet it's a pity the volume does not include the couple of contributions informed prospective purchasers might expect to find there as a matter of course. The relative shortness of Charles's career leads Luce Giard to comment (~7o) that "fate deprived him of a school of followers." I am happy to disagree with that melancholy conclusion. I learned a great deal from Charles, and I wasn't his student nor do I work in quite the same fields as he did. But many others have learned from him too. There are a lot of us about, in fact, and the good that Charles has done will ensure that we school ourselves to build on the intellectual achievements that made his a life well spent. ALAN GABBEY UpperBaUinde.% Northern Ireland Genevi/~ve Rodis-Lewis. L'anthropologiecart~sienne, l~pimrth~e: Essais Philosophiques. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, x99o. Pp. a97. Paper, FF aao.oo. In this fine collection, Genevieve Rodis-Lewis reiterates some important themes in Descartes. Primarily, she stresses the substantial union of the soul and body to form man. And while also stressing, in concurrence with Gouhier, that Descartes "fonde... l'autonomie de la physique m&anist: le monde de l'objectivit~ scientifique est purifi~ de son rev&ement qualitatif et de tout dynamisme interne; l'erreur scolastique est ainsi d~nonc&, en m~.me temps qu'expliqure par une projection anthropolormique remontant ~ l'enfance" (44), she remarks that Descartes does admit ":~ l'unique cas de l'homme la fonction de 'forme substantielle' que I'fime exerce ~ l'~gard de son corps" (44-45). All of this is calculated to deny any accusation of angelism, that the soul is lodged "au corps comme un pilote ~ son navire" (~5) and is equally in opposition to the view that an animal "automate" (~) with a body exactly like a man could be a man. It could not, because although "le passage du 'sense' (sensible vrcu) ~ son 'sens' pour nous avertir d'un bien ~ poursuivre ou d'un danger (faim, drgot~t) est un quasi-langage par la non-ressemblance et I'expression d'une certain finalit~ [et] il demeure identique et 300 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 30:9 APRIL x992 commun :~tous" (17). "Descartes et ses disciples ont pour point de d~part l'absence de ressemblance entre le signe et le signifi~.., le cri, le rire sont comme des r~ponses naturelles et communes ~ tous, mais le nora donn~ par chaque peuple ~ telle chose est arbitraire... Descartes ne croit donc pas a une langage commun, issu d'Adam" (16). And just as the invented signs of language do not resemble their objects, neither do the sensible images generated by the impact of bodies on our sense organs resemble the material bodies that cause them. Rodis-Lewis includes here studies of two important Cartesians, Dom Robert Desgabets and Bernard Lamy. Lamy develops the orthodox Cartesian notion that human language is arbitrary and invented. Desgabets is important in the history of medicine for his pioneering experiments in the transfusion of blood. He also wrote a Cartesian critique of Simon Foucher's critique of Malebranche's Recherchede la v~t~. In particular, Desgabets develops the view clearly expressed in Descartes that the notion of duration is tied to bodily motion. Thought, for Descartes, is active, dynamic, and...