Work · Rationalism
Correspondence with Descartes
How can an immaterial soul move the body? Elisabeth’s question opens a six-year exchange on mind, passions and the good life. Her own letters were first printed only in 1879.
Introduction
The correspondence began in May 1643, when Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, living in exile with her family in The Hague, wrote to Descartes; it was conducted in French and continued until shortly before his death in 1650. Her opening objection – movement seems to require contact and extension, so how can an unextended soul set the body in motion? – is now a standard formulation of the mind–body problem. Later letters discuss Seneca’s De vita beata, the control of the passions, illness, and politics, including Machiavelli. Descartes dedicated his Principles of Philosophy (1644) to her, and the exchange fed into The Passions of the Soul (1649).
Connections
Criticizes
- Meditations on First Philosophy1641 · René Descartes
Appears in
- Journey ‘The Riddle of Consciousness’ · Stop 2 of 10
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