Descartes' epistolary legacy: diagnosis — "betrayal" of rationalism

Abstract

The possibility of a new interpretation of Descartes is determined by his epistolary legacy  and scientific texts. The author analyses Descartes' correspondence with Princess Elizabeth, in particular the concept of substantial union, which does not fit into the «conventional» paradigm of understanding Descartes as a dualist and mechanist. The article is partly based on the work of Daniel Garber. The author focuses on two aspects. Firstly, the refusal of interpretation of the mind-body interaction in terms of the law of conservation. Secondly,  ontological characteristics are assigned to this interaction. These aspects, in the author's opinion, are the basis for postulation the virtue of Cartesian thinking. After all, it not only breaks with the rationalism of the time, realising its limits and dead ends, but also lays the foundations for the concept of corporeality developed later in the phenomenological tradition.