Le Monde de M. Descartes or Le Traité de la Lumière

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Le Monde , edition 1664

The work Le Monde de M. Descartes ou Le Traité de la Lumière , (German = The World or Treatise on Light ), Traité de la monde for short , is a natural-philosophical treatise by René Descartes , which he wrote between 1632 and 1633. The work remained unfinished and did not appear until posthumously in 1664.

The treatise on the world consists of two parts, the Traité de la Lumière (= treatise on light), which deals with a theory of light, and the Discours du mouvement local (≈ treatise on movement), in Descartes Deals with questions of human physiology . In addition to the description of human anatomy and a theory of blood circulation , it also deals with fundamental epistemological questions.

General

Descartes wrote this work, which has remained a fragment, during his stay in the Netherlands (1629–1649). Through his studies between 1629 and 1637 he wanted to explain natural science from completely new principles. From these studies, in addition to various mathematical writings, the Dioptrique , the Géométrie and the Météores emerged, which are appended to the Discours de la méthode as appendixes. “Since Descartes based his investigations on Galileo's worldview and expressly rejected medieval scholastic physics with its concept of form and the old Aristotelian doctrine of act and power, he had to fear hostility from the Church and the Inquisition . That is why he moved the world he played in 'Le Monde' into a fictional world of the future ”, so that he could always have invoked the pure fictionality of his hypotheses.

content

Descartes bases his explanation of the world on the principle of mathematically homogeneous space . Spatial expansion is the basic characteristic of matter, just as space must always be thought to be filled with matter . That is why Descartes introduces a “primary matter” in addition to perceptible matter. Descartes could not yet imagine that the universe could be largely a vacuum . For Descartes, however, the concept of movement is fundamental for things in space, which Aristotle did not grasp in enough concrete terms . So he regards the movement according to the laws of inertia, straightness and the conservation of energy. Here we find the earliest, relatively concrete formulations of both the law of inertia and the law of conservation of energy .

Vortex theory

Descartes developed his vortex theory from these assumptions: "Primary matter circles the sun in a tremendous vortex , the other celestial bodies practically 'swim' in it", with a smaller vortex forming around each celestial body. These vortices move slower outside and faster inside. The vortex theory fell into oblivion again , not least due to the sharp intervention of Newton . "Even the later reissue of the idea by Kant and Laplace could not change anything".

Tractatus de formatione fetus, Amsterdam, 1672

Discours du mouvement local

In the so-called Chapter 18 (= Discours du mouvement local / Man) Descartes discusses the biological life processes in the human body. It's about the body as a machine , how the machine moves, internal and external senses and the structure and functioning of the brain. He interprets the human body as a machine in which all life processes are purely mechanically coordinated and can be explained. Obviously Descartes applies the same principles in this reduction of the human body to a mere machine as in his explanation of the world. "If he had previously removed the barriers between physics and mathematics, in this chapter he is also breaking them down between physics and biology".

Chapter 18 is occasionally published as a separate text under the title Traité de l'homme ou du fetus or Tractatus de formatione fetus .

publication

Descartes neither completed nor published the work. The main cause was the inquisition trial against Galileo Galilei (1633) and his condemnation. Descartes wrote to Marin Mersenne :

This event “shook me so much that I am almost determined to burn all my notes, or at least not let anyone see them.
I confess that if it [the movement of the earth] is wrong, then all the foundations of my philosophy are also wrong. "

The work finally appeared posthumously in 1664. It is considered to be one of the central texts within Cartesian natural science. "In terms of the history of its impact, however, it fell short of the Principia philosophiae , for which it was probably just a preparation".

expenditure

  • Le monde de M. Descartes, ou Le traité de la lumière et des autres principaux des sens. Ed. 1664. Paris: Hache 2012. ISBN 978-2-01256988-1
  • Oeuvres de Descartes . Publiees par Charles Adam & Paul Tannery. Sous les Auspices de Ministere de L Instruction Publique. French and Latin. Paris & Londres, Cerf & Clarendon Press, 1897-1926.
The authoritative edition of Descartes' works in 12 volumes + register volume = 13 volumes.
Vol. 11: Le monde . Description du Corps Humain. Passions de L'Ame. Anatomica. Varia.
German translations
  • Le Monde or Traité de la Lumière. The world or treatise on light. Trans. U. with an afterword by G. Matthias Tripp. Berlin: Akademie-Verl. 1989.
  • The world: treatise on light. Man . Le Monde (Traité de la Lumière; Traité de l'Homme). French German. Translated from Christian Wohlers. Stuttgart: Meiner 2015. (Philosophical Library. 682.) ISBN 978-3-7873-2809-3 .

literature

  • NN: Le Monde de M. Descartes or Le Traité de la Lumière . In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Study edition. Vol. 4. Munich: Kindler 1988, p. 591.
  • Christian Wohlers: Introduction . In: René Descartes: The world: Treatise on light. The human being. Le Monde (Traité de la Lumière; Traité de l'Homme) . Stuttgart: Meiner 2015. S. VII – XXVII.
  • R. Ariew: Descartes as Critic of Galileo's Scientific Methodology , in: Synthesis. Vol. 67, 1986. pp. 77-90.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Article Descartes: Le Monde de M. Descartes in: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon
  2. ↑ quoted from: KLL vol. 4. 1988. p. 591.
  3. ↑ quoted from: KLL , Vol. 4. 1988. p. 591.
  4. ↑ quoted from: KLL vol. 4. 1988. p. 591.
  5. ↑ quoted from: KLL vol. 4. 1988. p. 591.
  6. ↑ Quoted from: KLL Vol. 4. 1988. P. 591.
  7. ↑ quoted from: KLL vol. 4. 1988. p. 591.