Although the basis of modern biology is Cartesian, Descartes's theories of biology have been more often ridiculed than studied. Yet, Dennis Des Chene demonstrates, the themes, arguments, and vocabulary of his mechanistic biology pervade the writings of many seventeenth-century authors. In his illuminating account of Cartesian physiology in its historical context, Des Chene focuses on the philosopher's innovative reworking of that field, including the nature of life, the problem of generation, and the concepts of health and illness. Des Chene begins by surveying works that Descartes would...

Sixteenth-century Aristotelianism was the culmination of four centuries of commentary and criticism. Physiologia is one of the first books to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to that tradition in natural philosophy. In an incisive and readable treatment, Dennis Des Chene illuminates the continuities and disruptions between medieval and modern philosophy and promotes a new understanding of the philosophical setting in which modern notions of science emerged.

Descartes is perhaps most closely associated with the title, "the Father of Modern Philosophy." Generations of students have been introduced to the study of philosophy through a consideration of his Meditations on First Philosophy. His contributions to natural science is shown by the fact that his physics, as promulgated by the Cartesians, played a central role in the debates after his death over Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation. Descartes also made major contributions to the field of analytic geometry; we still speak today of "Cartesian coordinates" and the "Cartesian product." This...