Blackwell Reference Online

With more than 30 newly commissioned essays, A Companion to Descartes details in unparalleled depth the work of the seventeenth-century philosopher-scientist commonly regarded as the founder of modern philosophy. Alongside discussion of his seminal contributions to our understanding of skepticism, mind-body dualism, self-knowledge, innate ideas, substance, causality, God, and the nature of animals, the volume provides in several essays a unique orientation to the intellectual, religious, and scientific contexts that were important to Descartes's work. Concluding with discussions of the impact of Descartes's work on subsequent generations of philosophers, the essays in this volume offer fresh and distinctive scholarly perspectives on this giant of the history of modern thought.