The False Flag of God and Descartes' Physics

• In Event: God and Politics

Abstract

The first English translator of Descartes’ Meditations, William Molyneux, makes the claim that the subject matter of the book is neither philosophy or metaphysics, but material physics. Molyneux’s contention is puzzling, and more so because Descartes too confides to his editor that the hidden secret contained in the Meditations is a refutation of Aristotle’s physics. The presence of this ‘physical’ theme and its place in the argument as a whole has never been accounted for adequately. The reason it has been overlooked is its proximity to Descartes’ spectacular proof of God he claims is demonstratively true and understandable to all of mankind. Descartes’ attempt to subvert the physics of Aristotle, while composing a work famous for its epistemology and metaphysics, highlights both the political constraints in which he found himself and the political reformation which he sought to bring about for the sake of the future of scientific enquiry.

Author

• Rafael Major, University of North Texas