Descartes’s ‘morale par provision’: A Re-evaluation

This article takes as its starting point Descartes’s statement in his Discours de la méthode, ‘Je me formai une morale par provision, qui ne consistait qu’en trois ou quatre maximes’. It offers an overview of criticism on Descartes as ethical thinker, revisiting in particular Michèle Le Dœuff ’s thoughts on Descartes in her L’Imaginaire philosophique (1980), and gives a reconsideration of the ethical content of Descartes’s work. Notably, it considers previous early modern uses of the term par provision, with special reference to the correspondence of Nicolas Peiresc. Analysing these earlier occurrences of the term can give us a more precise understanding of what Descartes sought to communicate in the maxims of the morale par provision, and of how the maxims may connect with his later work. The article concludes by suggesting that par provision can best be understood as relating to informality. The morale par provision grants this quality an ethical significance, as Descartes shows an enduring interest in retrospective justifica-tions and informal adjustments.