Geraud de Cordemoy: Six Discourses on the Distinction between the Body and the Soul

by Steven Nadler

Steven Nadler presents the first English translation of a seminal work in the history of early modern philosophy. Geraud de Cordemoy's Six Discourses on the Distinction Between the Soul and the Body (originally published in French in 1666) offers an account of the mind and the body in a human being. Cordemoy is an unorthodox Cartesian who opts for an atomist conception of body and matter. In this groundbreaking treatise, he also presents one of the earliest arguments for an occasionalist account of causation, with God serving as the true cause of bodily motions in the world and of ideas in the mind. Nadler also includes the first English translation of Cordemoy's short Treatises on Metaphysics , which were probably written soon after the Discourses , and extend his discussion of mind-body union with consideration of human freedom and happiness. The introduction provides a biographical and historical context for Cordemoy's work and a study of his main philosophical doctrines,
including his influence on later thinkers (such as Leibniz and Malebranche).

170 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2015

About the author

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. His books include Rembrandt's Jews, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Spinoza: A Life, which won the Koret Jewish Book Award; and A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (Princeton).

Reviews

[kloppy · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting. Cordemoy is a kind of rebel Cartesian, endorsing atomism and claiming that the animal spirits that flow into the pineal gland are really just particles (!!!). Discourses 2 & 3 are outrageously boring, but 4 & 5 have some interesting arguments for occasionalism. Anyone who can explain to me why A3 & A5 ought to be axioms will recieve 1,000$