By 1650 the adjective ‘Cartesian’ had emerged; it designated principally his mechanistic philosophy. This was opposed not only by Aristotelian traditionalists, but also by other radical thinkers, and was a powerful motor in the debate about the nature of matter and motion, even if none of his physical theories is now looked upon as correct. At the same time, the Discourse had another, more diffuse effect. Its radical programme, which did not require philosophical and ‘scientific’ training but only the employment of ‘good sense’, appealed to those who had not received a formal education,
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