Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Rules for the Direction of the Mind [Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii]

Amsterdam

P. and J. Blaeu

w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701

"Again, the pen as a whole does not move in exactly the same way as its lower end; on the contrary, the upper part of the pen seems to have a quite different and opposite movement. This enables us to understand how all the movements of other animals can come about, even though we refuse to allow that they have any awareness of things, but merely grant them a purely corporeal imagination."

Fourthly, the motive power (i.e. the nerves themselves) has its origin in the brain, where the corporeal imagination is located; and the latter moves the nerves in different ways, just as the 'common' sense is moved by the external senses or the whole pen is moved by its lower end. This example also shows how the corporeal imagination can be the cause of many different movements in the nerves, even though it does not have images of these movements imprinted on it, but has certain other images which enable these movements to follow on. Again, the pen as a whole does not move in exactly the same way as its lower end; on the contrary, the upper part of the pen seems to have a quite different and opposite movement. This enables us to understand how all the movements of other animals can come about, even though we refuse to allow that they have any awareness of things, but merely grant them a purely corporeal imagination. It also enables us to understand how there occur within us all those operations which we perform without any help from reason.
(Rule 12, p. 41-2)

Writing::Pen

Past Masters

Reading Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothof, and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985).

See Opuscula posthuma, physica et mathematica (Amsterdam: P. and J. Blaeu, 1701).

Not published in Descartes' lifetime. Dutch translation in 1684; published in Latin in 1701.

Writing to the Moment

10/01/2003

01/26/2012